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Wonder Woman
Friday, 2 June 2017 21:50
I really wanted to love Wonder Woman, but I was really worried that I'd hate it, because DC and I have not been friends for a long time, so I went to see it on my own last night so I could assess my reaction to it before committing to see it with other people. (The spectre of The Force Awakens was looming here: that would have been an even worse experience if I'd seen it with anyone else.) Turns out I... didn't have much of a reaction either way, for spoilery reasons which I will get into under the cut, along with my other thoughts on the film.
( emotions not found )
Overall I'm glad I saw it, but partly because now I know what I think about it, and I can stop worrying about it and go back to thinking about Star Trek pretty much full time. I'm sad I didn't love it, but at least I didn't hate it. (Also, I definitely feel like I've given the DCCU a fair try now, because if they couldn't even sell me Wonder Woman, I think I can safely say there's nothing there for me.)
( emotions not found )
Overall I'm glad I saw it, but partly because now I know what I think about it, and I can stop worrying about it and go back to thinking about Star Trek pretty much full time. I'm sad I didn't love it, but at least I didn't hate it. (Also, I definitely feel like I've given the DCCU a fair try now, because if they couldn't even sell me Wonder Woman, I think I can safely say there's nothing there for me.)
(your wiki page needs an update)
Thursday, 29 August 2013 11:59
Twitter needs to knock it off with the connected tweets thing, it is making me want to BITE THINGS.
This week's comics:
Young Avengers #9: I feel like I've been waiting FOREVER for this comic, but it was worth it! It wasn't quite as quotable as previous issue, but the dialogue was still excellent, and the whole comic just SPARKLES. ( spoilers )
Journey Into Mystery #655: nooooo don't be over. :(((( ( no spoilers, just impressions, but cut to be on the safe side )
Captain Marvel #15: ...eh. I really like this book, but this issue left me somewhat underwhelmed. ( spoilers )
Other comics-wise, I watched the animated film of DC's New Frontier series the other day, and really liked it.
( doesn't really contain any spoilers, I don't think, but does contain a lot of rambling about Batman and Robin )
Off to my parents' for the weekend after work tomorrow! :D (If I have offered to lend any of you any books that live there, this would be a good time to remind me... ;D)
This week's comics:
Young Avengers #9: I feel like I've been waiting FOREVER for this comic, but it was worth it! It wasn't quite as quotable as previous issue, but the dialogue was still excellent, and the whole comic just SPARKLES. ( spoilers )
Journey Into Mystery #655: nooooo don't be over. :(((( ( no spoilers, just impressions, but cut to be on the safe side )
Captain Marvel #15: ...eh. I really like this book, but this issue left me somewhat underwhelmed. ( spoilers )
Other comics-wise, I watched the animated film of DC's New Frontier series the other day, and really liked it.
( doesn't really contain any spoilers, I don't think, but does contain a lot of rambling about Batman and Robin )
Off to my parents' for the weekend after work tomorrow! :D (If I have offered to lend any of you any books that live there, this would be a good time to remind me... ;D)
"Wait. The undergrowth. It's... enormously cute."
Wednesday, 24 July 2013 13:50Here are some thoughts about comics and comics based films and whatnot.
Fearless Defenders #6: ( spoilers )
Young Avengers #7&8: this comic is just so fun! (SMOOOOOOCH. :D) It has so much energy and willingness to be a bit silly. ( not really spoilers but cutting anyway just in case )
Red Sonja #1: I basically bought this for the gorgeous Fiona Staples cover, and consider it a major achievement that I made it back to work without getting run over, given the amount of time I spent staring at it. ♥ Anyway, I liked the comic itself a lot too: it was fun, and rather Xena-ish. I probably won't keep buying it, because it's expensive and I'm sorry but I just CANNOT get past the chainmail bikini issue, but I might get the trade.
Li'l Gotham #15: Batman and Robin go to Comic Con and it is AMAZING. I laughed! And then I cried a bit. This comic is so wonderful.
Smallville #56: Speaking of wonderful things... I started reading this again because Wonder Woman, and based on this issue I think I made the right choice. Great, intriguing introduction for Smallville!Wondy.
In other comics news, DC's next film is going to be Batman/Superman. Sigh. Aside from the lack-of-Wonder-Woman issue - which is NOT MINOR - this depresses me because WB seem to be too timid to actually do anything with the vast stable of rich, interesting characters they have to play with. A Justice League film is all well and good (at least it might mean Wonder Woman on the big screen, right?), but Marvel's kind of already got the shared cinematic universe team movie thing sewn up. Whatever DC does with Justice League, it'll be compared to The Avengers, and it'd have to be pretty special to win that fight. Plus, DC's not exactly starting from a strong position here: they have Man of Steel, but Green Lantern flopped and Nolan's Batverse doesn't exactly play well with others. I'd love to see DC going down a different route and trying to make films that can't be dismissed as " just another superhero movie". A Question film (pref Renee Montoya, obvs). Gotham Central (possibly better as a TV series?). Spoiler. Checkmate. Batwoman: Elegy could make a great film. A shared universe Oracle film would be amazing, though it might need a lot of adapting (ooh, maybe it could be combined with a Cass film - she rescues Babs, Babs steps up and uses her librarian powers to help Cass with the word bits of crime fighting, discovers she is REALLY GOOD AT IT etc). I would LOVE to see a Nightrunner film, in French, with subtitles. And so on. Basically none of these are ever going to happen, because they wouldn't be massive smash hit blockbusters, but done right... wouldn't they be great?
And meanwhile, Marvel still hasn't announced a Black Widow film, or a Captain Marvel one, or a Black Panther one, etc etc etc. *taps watch impatiently*
Fearless Defenders #6: ( spoilers )
Young Avengers #7&8: this comic is just so fun! (SMOOOOOOCH. :D) It has so much energy and willingness to be a bit silly. ( not really spoilers but cutting anyway just in case )
Red Sonja #1: I basically bought this for the gorgeous Fiona Staples cover, and consider it a major achievement that I made it back to work without getting run over, given the amount of time I spent staring at it. ♥ Anyway, I liked the comic itself a lot too: it was fun, and rather Xena-ish. I probably won't keep buying it, because it's expensive and I'm sorry but I just CANNOT get past the chainmail bikini issue, but I might get the trade.
Li'l Gotham #15: Batman and Robin go to Comic Con and it is AMAZING. I laughed! And then I cried a bit. This comic is so wonderful.
Smallville #56: Speaking of wonderful things... I started reading this again because Wonder Woman, and based on this issue I think I made the right choice. Great, intriguing introduction for Smallville!Wondy.
In other comics news, DC's next film is going to be Batman/Superman. Sigh. Aside from the lack-of-Wonder-Woman issue - which is NOT MINOR - this depresses me because WB seem to be too timid to actually do anything with the vast stable of rich, interesting characters they have to play with. A Justice League film is all well and good (at least it might mean Wonder Woman on the big screen, right?), but Marvel's kind of already got the shared cinematic universe team movie thing sewn up. Whatever DC does with Justice League, it'll be compared to The Avengers, and it'd have to be pretty special to win that fight. Plus, DC's not exactly starting from a strong position here: they have Man of Steel, but Green Lantern flopped and Nolan's Batverse doesn't exactly play well with others. I'd love to see DC going down a different route and trying to make films that can't be dismissed as " just another superhero movie". A Question film (pref Renee Montoya, obvs). Gotham Central (possibly better as a TV series?). Spoiler. Checkmate. Batwoman: Elegy could make a great film. A shared universe Oracle film would be amazing, though it might need a lot of adapting (ooh, maybe it could be combined with a Cass film - she rescues Babs, Babs steps up and uses her librarian powers to help Cass with the word bits of crime fighting, discovers she is REALLY GOOD AT IT etc). I would LOVE to see a Nightrunner film, in French, with subtitles. And so on. Basically none of these are ever going to happen, because they wouldn't be massive smash hit blockbusters, but done right... wouldn't they be great?
And meanwhile, Marvel still hasn't announced a Black Widow film, or a Captain Marvel one, or a Black Panther one, etc etc etc. *taps watch impatiently*
just a lot of words really
Monday, 6 August 2012 13:07
1) Trailer for the animated Dark Knight Returns (part 1)! I wasn't exactly excited about this when I first heard about it, because I dimly remember not being that thrilled by The Dark Knight Returns when I read it about a decade ago, but this trailer has got me enthused by being mostly focused on Carrie Kelly. A girl Robin that Batman describes as "perfect"? YES PLEASE.
2) Some comics I have read recently:
3) Still working on reading all the Booker and Orange prize winners. Had some trouble with 1999's Booker winner, Disgrace, since I entirely loathed the protagonist. I think I was meant to dislike him, but it's hard to read something when you just keep thinking "go away, go away, GO AWAY" at the point of view character. Amsterdam, the 1998 winner, I enjoyed a bit more, but it was let down by the preposterous ending. The closer I got to the end of the book, the more I thought "oh no, that can't be where this is going, that would just be TOO STUPID", but indeed it was where it was going. Shouldn't there be some kind of minimum plausibility standard for prize-winning realist fiction?
The 1998 Orange Prize winner, Larry's Party, was much better. It was full of warmth and affection, and it made all the characters seem like people in their own right, not just cut-outs orbiting the protagonist. It also helped that it didn't treat Larry's life as being Fraught With Special Meaning And Importance: his life is meaningful and important, yes, but only because everyone's is.
4) My things from the library pile includes a lot of Shakespeare-related books at the moment, inspired by reading James Shapiro's excellent Contested Will. The only one I've managed to read so far is The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street, which does a great job of taking a lot of small pieces of evidence and using them to build up a convincing picture of the milieu Shakespeare might have inhabited.
2) Some comics I have read recently:
- Power Girl: Old Friends: I thought this series wasn't nearly as good after the Gray/Palmiotti/Conner team left, but it picked up a bit towards the end and I really liked the last two issues. (Also, I really loved the Gray/Palmiotti/Conner run, so "not as good as that" is not as damning as it sounds.) The penultimate issue was slightly obvious in its "yay girl power!" stuff, but its heart was in the right place, and I loved that there was a bit of diversity of body shape and ethnicity amongst the Power Girl cosplayers. And the scene where the main fangirl character got to the front of the queue and started off into a whole speech about what PG meant to her, only to get in a muddle and tail off with "...I forgot what I was going to say" was adorable. The last issue was a great showcase of what Power Girl can do, and I laughed a lot at this exchange between her and the villain: "Do you know what most vulnerable part of the body is?"/"...er, the heart?"/"No, you idiot, the back of the knee." *kicks* As closing lines go, "We have all the time in the world" is a bit clichéd, and it's not a patch on "it's only the end if you want it to be", but still, sadness. One thing I did really like about the art was how physically imposing Power Girl is; I've only seen scans of World's Finest, but that seems to be less the case there, which makes me sad.
- Batman: Cataclysm was a bit of a slog, to be honest, though I did enjoy a) finding out that the Drakes apparently lived next door to Wayne Manor (!) and Tim had a secret tunnel to allow him to sneak out for Robining purposes (!!), and b) Dick Grayson running through Bludhaven, tearing his clothes off as he went, hee. I did feel it needed more hugs, overall. But I did enjoy the Huntress/Spoiler team-up, which is what I was reading it for, so that was ok. I liked that even in just one issue, there was space for their relationship to be fairly complicated - some things they had in common, some things they clashed over - and am now even sadder that neither character is around any more. :(
- I've also been (slowly) catching up with Greg Rucka's run on Wonder Woman, which is just as amazing as I'd heard. I love Wonder Woman so much: her strength, her serenity, her clear-eyed compassion and her determination to do the right thing, whatever the personal cost. ♥
3) Still working on reading all the Booker and Orange prize winners. Had some trouble with 1999's Booker winner, Disgrace, since I entirely loathed the protagonist. I think I was meant to dislike him, but it's hard to read something when you just keep thinking "go away, go away, GO AWAY" at the point of view character. Amsterdam, the 1998 winner, I enjoyed a bit more, but it was let down by the preposterous ending. The closer I got to the end of the book, the more I thought "oh no, that can't be where this is going, that would just be TOO STUPID", but indeed it was where it was going. Shouldn't there be some kind of minimum plausibility standard for prize-winning realist fiction?
The 1998 Orange Prize winner, Larry's Party, was much better. It was full of warmth and affection, and it made all the characters seem like people in their own right, not just cut-outs orbiting the protagonist. It also helped that it didn't treat Larry's life as being Fraught With Special Meaning And Importance: his life is meaningful and important, yes, but only because everyone's is.
4) My things from the library pile includes a lot of Shakespeare-related books at the moment, inspired by reading James Shapiro's excellent Contested Will. The only one I've managed to read so far is The Lodger: Shakespeare on Silver Street, which does a great job of taking a lot of small pieces of evidence and using them to build up a convincing picture of the milieu Shakespeare might have inhabited.
here we go
Tuesday, 24 April 2012 12:06
Further adventures in animated DC stuff: I am about a dozen episodes into Young Justice! I like it a lot, although script wise it is... not always that great. ( spoilers up to Homefront )
(I've also been reading the original Young Justice comics, which I love tremendously and which really deserve a post of their own. Maybe I will get round to it eventually. For now I will just mention that I am sad that Red Tornado is not nearly as sarcastic in the cartoon as he was in the comics.)
Also, last night I watched Under the Red Hood, since it was streaming on Lovefilm, which was very good, though, probably inevitably, rather grim. And now I am shipping Dick/Jason based on actual canon, and not just on fic. :D? (I was working on the Batsymbol part of my Batgirl cardigan as I was watching this, heh.)
Oh, I forgot to talk about finishing Justice League Unlimited! ALL THE LOVE. The finale was slightly on the action-heavy side for my taste, but the very end of it was just perfect: ( spoilers )
Picking my one comics icon for this post has reminded me that I haven't flailed properly about Batgirl vol 3 yet. IT IS SO GOOD YOU GUYS. It's basically everything I want in a comic: it's funny, it's got so much heart, and it has a really great ensemble cast including a female/female mentor/mentee relationship (MY FAVOURITE). The parallels and semi-parallels between the characters and their relationships are brilliant, too. ♥ I love all the scenes with Dick and Babs, especially when he tells her off for letting Steph go out and find crime, and she's just all "yes, it is terribly irresponsible of me to take a League of Assassins-trained ten year old out crime fighting OH WAIT THAT WAS YOU." (Sidenote: have I mentioned how much I love Damian? He is all tiny and grumpy and superior, I can relate to that.)
And it's all about hope and new chances and being who you choose to be and all that good stuff. The bit that really sums it up for me is the bit in Rising where Steph tells Damian that "I don't think you understand what Barbara and I are trying to do here. [...] There's room for hope in our line of work, too." ALL THE HEARTS. Also, earlier, Steph saying that she's "whoever I choose to be", and Babs thinking about how "every day is a new chance to make the right choices". LOVE. And the final issue just breaks my heart: ( spoilers ) The only criticism I have is "not enough Cass" (I assume there were behind the scenes reasons not to give her a big role, but she could've been mentioned more), but other than that, perfect comic is perfect.
...yeah, so, comics is my new fandom. :D? I suppose it was inevitable, given that I really like canons where there is LOTS OF CANON.
(HI. I haven't posted for ages! How are you all? I also haven't commented much recently. I blame being busy revising, but really it is due to my general failings.)
(I've also been reading the original Young Justice comics, which I love tremendously and which really deserve a post of their own. Maybe I will get round to it eventually. For now I will just mention that I am sad that Red Tornado is not nearly as sarcastic in the cartoon as he was in the comics.)
Also, last night I watched Under the Red Hood, since it was streaming on Lovefilm, which was very good, though, probably inevitably, rather grim. And now I am shipping Dick/Jason based on actual canon, and not just on fic. :D? (I was working on the Batsymbol part of my Batgirl cardigan as I was watching this, heh.)
Oh, I forgot to talk about finishing Justice League Unlimited! ALL THE LOVE. The finale was slightly on the action-heavy side for my taste, but the very end of it was just perfect: ( spoilers )
Picking my one comics icon for this post has reminded me that I haven't flailed properly about Batgirl vol 3 yet. IT IS SO GOOD YOU GUYS. It's basically everything I want in a comic: it's funny, it's got so much heart, and it has a really great ensemble cast including a female/female mentor/mentee relationship (MY FAVOURITE). The parallels and semi-parallels between the characters and their relationships are brilliant, too. ♥ I love all the scenes with Dick and Babs, especially when he tells her off for letting Steph go out and find crime, and she's just all "yes, it is terribly irresponsible of me to take a League of Assassins-trained ten year old out crime fighting OH WAIT THAT WAS YOU." (Sidenote: have I mentioned how much I love Damian? He is all tiny and grumpy and superior, I can relate to that.)
And it's all about hope and new chances and being who you choose to be and all that good stuff. The bit that really sums it up for me is the bit in Rising where Steph tells Damian that "I don't think you understand what Barbara and I are trying to do here. [...] There's room for hope in our line of work, too." ALL THE HEARTS. Also, earlier, Steph saying that she's "whoever I choose to be", and Babs thinking about how "every day is a new chance to make the right choices". LOVE. And the final issue just breaks my heart: ( spoilers ) The only criticism I have is "not enough Cass" (I assume there were behind the scenes reasons not to give her a big role, but she could've been mentioned more), but other than that, perfect comic is perfect.
...yeah, so, comics is my new fandom. :D? I suppose it was inevitable, given that I really like canons where there is LOTS OF CANON.
(HI. I haven't posted for ages! How are you all? I also haven't commented much recently. I blame being busy revising, but really it is due to my general failings.)
girls on film
Wednesday, 2 November 2011 11:23
I have been working my way through various female led action/superhero films! Here are some of the things that I have watched:
- Resident Evil: bizarrely, this was the second film in as many days to contain Unexpected James Purefoy (the other was Bedrooms and Hallways), well done there, film. I enjoyed it a lot, although it is rather gorier than my usual fare: it turns out I am fine with zombies but very freaked out by ( possibly getting into spoiler territory? )
- Next up was Elektra, which is not a good film, but overall I feel very positive about it as it contained one element that I really loved: ( spoilers )
- Also I watched Aeon Flux, which was... odd. ( not really spoilers but I have got into the habit of using cut tags now, so )
- After that was Supergirl; I've been trying to get into the Supergirl comics recently (because of how she and Batgirl fought vampires that time), but they are SO CONFUSING, so I was a little dismayed to see a whole other backstory for her that wasn't the one I knew. But that issue aside, I liked it a lot - not necessarily a good film, but an entertaining one. Overall I would characterise it as "deeply cheesy, but nevertheless rather charming". I am thinking particularly of the scene where ( vaguely spoilery, maybe )
- And finally, Milla Jovovich again in Ultraviolet! I was expecting to enjoy it based on the fact that she had a sword on the DVD cover, but I was rather put off by the fact that everyone looked oddly smooth and glowy for some reason. Step away from the effects box, people! I was also unimpressed by the almost complete lack of female characters who weren't Violet, grrr. On the plus side, it did pick up a fair bit when the swords eventually came out, and I enjoyed the final fight scene a lot: ( spoilers! )
I feel like I should have some concluding thoughts here, but I don't. Well, nothing beyond "make more superheroine films! And make them better!", but I had that one before I started. Actually, thinking about it, I would like superheroine TV serieses even better, since I prefer TV to film as a medium. GET ON THAT, PEOPLE WHO ARE IN CHARGE OF THESE THINGS.
(I typed most of this out in Google Docs, which has helpfully corrected a selection of my straight quotes to curly quotes. Why do you hate me at the moment, Google?)
- Resident Evil: bizarrely, this was the second film in as many days to contain Unexpected James Purefoy (the other was Bedrooms and Hallways), well done there, film. I enjoyed it a lot, although it is rather gorier than my usual fare: it turns out I am fine with zombies but very freaked out by ( possibly getting into spoiler territory? )
- Next up was Elektra, which is not a good film, but overall I feel very positive about it as it contained one element that I really loved: ( spoilers )
- Also I watched Aeon Flux, which was... odd. ( not really spoilers but I have got into the habit of using cut tags now, so )
- After that was Supergirl; I've been trying to get into the Supergirl comics recently (because of how she and Batgirl fought vampires that time), but they are SO CONFUSING, so I was a little dismayed to see a whole other backstory for her that wasn't the one I knew. But that issue aside, I liked it a lot - not necessarily a good film, but an entertaining one. Overall I would characterise it as "deeply cheesy, but nevertheless rather charming". I am thinking particularly of the scene where ( vaguely spoilery, maybe )
- And finally, Milla Jovovich again in Ultraviolet! I was expecting to enjoy it based on the fact that she had a sword on the DVD cover, but I was rather put off by the fact that everyone looked oddly smooth and glowy for some reason. Step away from the effects box, people! I was also unimpressed by the almost complete lack of female characters who weren't Violet, grrr. On the plus side, it did pick up a fair bit when the swords eventually came out, and I enjoyed the final fight scene a lot: ( spoilers! )
I feel like I should have some concluding thoughts here, but I don't. Well, nothing beyond "make more superheroine films! And make them better!", but I had that one before I started. Actually, thinking about it, I would like superheroine TV serieses even better, since I prefer TV to film as a medium. GET ON THAT, PEOPLE WHO ARE IN CHARGE OF THESE THINGS.
(I typed most of this out in Google Docs, which has helpfully corrected a selection of my straight quotes to curly quotes. Why do you hate me at the moment, Google?)
The Dark Knight
Friday, 1 August 2008 09:55
Went to see The Dark Knight yesterday evening. Overall I'd give it 3.5/5, it was good, but did it really have to be seventeen hours long? I don't mind slow, I like slow when it means time given over to character development and worldbuilding and all that good stuff, but this rather dragged. I spent a lot of the last hour or so (from ( spoilers )
