Coming Soon!

Hello again,True Believers!  Just a few upcoming things highlight as interests, time and proximity allow:

1) Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice premieres on Thursday, March 24th at a theater near you.  DC Entertainment's response to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe amps up here with the follow up to Man of Steel.  The actions and events of MOS are shown to have consequences and it's time to see who will foot the bill. See the trailer below.

2) Wizard World will be coming to Madison, WI the weekend of April 8-10.  Some of the headliners in the guest corral include David Tennant, Matt Smith and Billie Boyd.  There are lots of others as well as many talented comic artists, merchandise and a slew of interesting panels to attend.

3) International Tabletop Day will be returning on April 30th.  Check you local game stores and comic shops to see who is participating and see what they have to offer for open play and demonstrations. Lots of good deals going on during ITD so bring some mad money along with you.

4) Captain America: Civil War opens Thursday May 5th.  Marvel keeps on trucking with CA's third headliner and almost all his friends have come to play.  How true will the movie stay to the original story line of Civil War?  Will Cap make it out alive?  Will Chris Evans be free to bring the Fantastic Four property back to it's former glory?  Wait and see.  Trailer below.

If you have anything to add to the list, drop us a line and we'll add it to future updates.

Thanks and geek out!

#batmanvsuperman
#captainamericacivilwar
#wizardworldmadison
#internationaltabletopday

Ghostbusters...huh?

Here we are, just over thirty years after the release of the seminal original comedy classic movie Ghostbusters and The-Powers-That-Be released the first official trailer of it's 2016 reboot.  In case you haven't seen it yet, here you go.

Now that that train wreck is over, WTF?  

The original Ghostbusters is unarguably a classic piece of American cinema.  It starred good people, it was directed by good people.  Hell, I bet even the craft service was staffed by good people.  Fast-forward thirty years and the wh*res over at Columbia Pictures agreed to follow it up with, based off of what they've given us in the trailer, an over-CGI'd reshoot of Bridesmaids.  I'm not typically one to judge a movie on first impressions and I prefer to see a movie in it's entirety before I formulate opinions but based on this trailer, cautious optimism would be very lucky right now.

To get this out of the way right away, I have absolutely no issue with an all-female cast for Ghostbusters.  Women are amazing actors and anyone with the talent and the ability to pull out the qualities needed to establish their characters and progress the narrative deserve my respect and appreciation for the work they do.

The Acting:

The acting is very slap-sticky and dumbed-down.  The characters are just that...characters.  They play on cinematic and cultural stereotypes and seem to do very little to pull themselves out of those roles. The main characters seem very shallow in their portrayal; it comes off like community theater.  The Tolan character looks like it fell out of a Wayans Brothers movie, using catch phrases and over-the-top reactions in an attempt to increase the humor factor.  The Holtzmann character is only represented as an eccentric, nerdy rebel in her time on screen and leaves little to make any real conclusions about.  The movie boasts planned cameos by most of the remaining members of the original movie and I hope, for their sake they knew what they agreed to before they signed on.

The "Look":

The supernatural aspects of the movie look like an amalgamation of the original movie and the big-screen version of Scoobie Doo.  Lots of bright colors and glowing auras.  It looks campy and comical compared to the ethereal effects used in the original.   The ghosts come off as nonthreatening, almost adorable so there isn't much suspense to draw you in.  Since it was shot digital (more than likely in high def), it doesn't have that gritty feeling you can only get from a celluloid capture. In my opinion, it's a huge part of the mise-en-scene of the original movie.

To say I have concerns about this movie would be a serious understatement.  The trailer gives every impression this will be another over-computerized, under-thought film pushed out by the Hollywood machine strictly for profit.  Another, dare I say, "Gods of Egypt".

Fortunately, a fan immediately re-cut the trailer almost as soon as it posted and made a more palpable vision to settle ruffled feathers.  If only this guy had been on set....

What we learned from Comic Con this year.

SDCC came and went. A lot of fun was had by all.  People Wanged.  People Chunged.  People took low-quality, shaky footage of exclusive media and immediately posted it online.  You know, everything we've come to expect from arguably the most popular entertainment convention in the country, if not the world.  The question of the moment is has SDCC hit a downturn?

The Good

Trailers, trailers, trailers!  Several major teasers dropped over the course of the weekend.  The most notable trailers are listed below.  The links are working at the time of this post, so if you find that any are not, that means lawyers probably got involved.

Star Wars; The Force Awakens (actually a behind-the-scenes reel, but cool none the less)

X-Men: Apocalypse 

Deadpool; probably the most well-received of the trailers

Superman V. Batman: Dawn of Justice (offical trailer)

Suicide Squad

Movie trailers aside, there are a ton of panel videos and Q & As available courtesy of SDCC themselves as well as organizations like The Nerd Machine who host their own events on the side.  The full listing of Nerd Machine panels can be found on YouTube.  

The Bad

There's chatter as to whether the golden age of San Diego Comic Con has come and gone.  In recent years, the convention has become a marketing gold mine for Hollywood studios and production companies to promote their upcoming properties,  Most notable of these is the Marvel Entertainment powerhouse and their Avengers franchise, which has made A LOT of money.  This year, three of the major players, Marvel, Sony & Paramount chose to not to participate.  Marvel recently held their own promotional event in Los Angeles following the convention to focus the crowd's attention.  Sony & Paramount, on the other hand didn't have any products to push or felt that this particular arena wasn't the appropriate avenue to promote their upcoming slate.

It's easy and accurate to say that San Diego has lost touch with it's original intent.  Based on 2014's ticket sales, attendance of the convention reaches in excess of 130,000 people but only a fraction of those attending are actually in it for the comics.  The majority of attendees go for the interaction with others, the opportunity to cosplay and the hopes of meeting and greeting whomever plans on making an appearance.  The convention has become "Hollywood-ified" and while this convention can still boast more comics and related programming than any other event, that's not what drives the boat.  Legitimate comic industry professionals are increasingly refusing to attend because because of crowds and the climate and a sense that the convention heads don't care about them anymore.  Here are a couple of articles that really get into the duality of SDCC. 

Reasons Why Comic-Con Is the Worst Place Ever - Vice Magazine, July 2014

What’s RIGHT and What's WRONG About the SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON  - Newsarama, July 2013

There's speculation that the convention might move out of San Diego once it's contract with the convention center expires in 2016.  Many cities have expressed interest in hosting and San Diego has expressed great interest in holding on to this mammoth cash cow.  It's difficult to say if the comic industry will continue to support the event, contrasting the amount of exposure they get through their involvement against the obvious shift in focus away from the industry towards more entertainment-based participants.

#sandiegocomiccon

#thegoodthebadandthemoney

#fanboysunite1

Requiem for a Low-Level Blogger & Movie Trailer Bonanza!

It's been many, MANY months since I last posted.  For that, all I can do is apologize.  Time, opportunity and creativity have been fighting against me and let's be honest, they've been kicking my a$$.  I could drone on about living in a cultural void (isolated northern Wisconsin), or "life getting in the way", but I don't want to give you excuses. Instead, I want to work harder to provide you with good content and make this a place you want to keep on coming back to.  That being said, I will move on and do better.

It's the day after the SooperBowl and you know what that means...Summer Blockbuster Trailers galore!!!!  Here is a smattering of notable trailers from last night's broadcast.



Tomorrowland (May 22nd)

Very little information is available about the storyline of this movie; "Frank (George Clooney) and Casey (Britt Robertson) travel to a place somewhere in time and space only known as Tomorrowland where their actions directly affect the world and themselves." (taken from Wikipedia.) It stars George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Judy Greer, Katheryn Hahn, and Hugh Laurie star and it is directed by Brad Bird (The Incredibles).

Jurassic World (June 12th)

Didn't think this would ever see the inside of a theater; it's been in some level of production for, what, 15 years?  My main interest in this lies in the performance of Chris Pratt.  He had an outstanding delivery as Peter "Star Lord" Quill in last summer's Guardians of the Galaxy and who doesn't love his portrayal of Andy Dwyer on NBC's Parks and Recreation?  This story takes place 22 years after the events of the first movie (surprise, surprise).  The Park has been in full operation for about a decade and attendance is on the decline so The Powers That Be ask, "How do we fix it?  I know!  Something with genetics!  How could it go wrong?" And go!  This stars the aforementioned Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, B.D. Wong (the only member of the original movie cast to reprise his role), Judy Greer, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Jake Johnson (The New Girl.  It is directed by Colin Trevorrow of Safety Not Guaranteed fame.

Terminator: Genisys (July 1st)

It's the energizer bunny of sci-fi franchises; it just keeps going.....and going......and going. Due to the events of previous movies, the future has changed for our heroes and Kyle Reese, John Connor's dad/lieutenant is sent back to help Sarah Connor and an aged T-800 Schwarzenegger model prevent Judgement Day...and a young T-800 Schwarzenegger model.  So that happened.  But that's ok because it's a Terminator movie that will be rated PG-13 and that can never go wrong. Right?  Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, Matt "Dr. Who" Smith (ohhh, surprise!), J.K. Simmons, and Jason Clarke (no relation to Emilia).  It is directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World).

Ted 2 (June 26th)

You know...why not?  Picking up where Ted left off, Ted and his paramour/wife want to adopt and he has to prove in a court of law that he is a "person."  It's called "Suspension of Disbelief", people. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Seth MacFarlane, Amanda Seyfried (who replaces Mila Kunis), Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman. It is also directed by MacFarlane.

Of course there are a multitude of movies coming out this summer.  Some are eagerly anticipated and others....eh.  But it is up to every free-thinking American to decide for him or herself to decide what movies fall into each of those categories.  

San Diego Comic Con: A Celebration

If you want to know the true spirit of the comic con, look no further than this picture.  Seth Green @SethGreen (bottom left) captured this during an SDCC Q & A panel sponsored  by the fine people at The Nerd Machine.

Through the efforts of The Nerd Machine and the volunteers and friends aligned with it, over $230k was raised to support Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that corrects facial deformities suffered by children all over the world.  This would not have been possible if not for the indomitable spirit of dedicated fans like these.

This is the key to the success of the San Diego Comic Convention held every year in, surprise surprise, San Diego.  It is an opportunity for the fans and the faithful to come together and celebrate what we live for everyday.  The characters we endear ourselves to.  The stories we pass on to the next generations.  The talented people that give life and breath to the creations we enjoy day after day and year after year.  George Lucas, Joss Whedon, George R.R. Martin, Stan Lee... These names are iconic in our world and the creations they have fashioned live on in our hearts as well as our heads.  We celebrate their work and their contributions through conventions.  It gives us an opportunity to adorn ourselves in the garb of heroes and villains, interact with our brothers and sister from across the street and across the world, and most of all pay homage.

What makes San Diego especially special, you might ask?  It has become the premier entertainment event in the entire world.  Representatives from every continent travel to The Golden State each year because it is a hop, skip and a jump from Los Angeles, not-so-coincidentally the Entertainment Capital of the World, a major source of ideas and materials to our culture.  Many of the stars and celebrities that contribute to our Fandom join in celebrating, simply be coming out to the event or going the extra mile to donate some of their time and meet the fans face-to-face through panels, signings and photo opportunities.  People like Zachary Levi @ZacharyLevi , Nathan Fillion @NathanFillion , Alan Tudyk @alan_tudyk , and Aisha Tyler  @aishatyler  sacrifice time and sleep to give the fans an enriching and worthwhile experience, meeting us, answering questions, taking pictures, giving us money (that would be Tudyk; he signs the money too) and those are only a handful of people that commit themselves to that degree for Fandom.  There are a variety of panels covering a variety of topics and people; a good rule is, if there's something that interests you, there's probably a panel for it.

Another eagerly anticipated spectacle acquainted with SDCC is the release of exclusive content by the creators of many of the properties associated with the themes of the convention.  Comic book creators, game producers, and movie & television studios put together exciting and titillating media packages and information solely for attendees of the convention.  Hollywood general takes the spotlight in this area, no pun intended.  A coveted teaser trailer for Superman V. Batman: dawn of Justice premiered during a Superman/Batman panel and, after surfacing on select news and personal websites, disappeared just as quickly per requests by Warner Bros. Studio to take them down.  Not to be outdone, Marvel Studios released new footage for Avengers: Age of Ultron, test footage from the Peyton Reed (not Edgar Wright)-helmed Ant-Man, AND a release date for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, despite Guardians of the Galaxy 1 not having released yet.  Imagine the feeling of standing in a hall filled with energized friends, brothers and sisters and watching a huge screen light up with new exciting footage that only you lucky few are privy to.

The other trademark of any comic con is the employment of cosplay.  Dedicated fans spend time, sweat, tears, and in some cases, A LOT of money on assembling costumes that either directly replicate a character or pay homage to them.  These costumes are creative, original, ornate and sometimes functional.  A notable segment of these cosplayers are The 501st Legion, a organization of volunteers loyal to the Star Wars franchise who also go out and support their local communities.  They dress as garrisons of Imperial Stormtroopers; members have to abide by strict costume regulations to acquire and maintain membership in the organization.  

San Diego Comic Con is a celebration of us as is every comic convention, just with more bells and whistles than most conventions.  If you want an opportunity to celebrate fan literature and movies and televisions and games, I strongly recommend going to a convention near you and meeting the people and seeing the sites and embracing the essence of your nerdom.  You're a geek.  Be a proud geek and celebrate.

#imageek #sdcc #thenerdmachine #sethgreen 

Resources

http://www.comic-con.org/

http://www.wizardworld.com/

http://www.cosplay.com/

http://www.thenerdmachine.com/