The curse of the fickle

Sorry if your pants are wet. You likely didn't have a nighttime oopsie; it's probably just from wading through the tears of the entire online film community, who have been sobbing relentlessly since the flopitude of Scott Pilgrim was revealed. So much ink has been spilled on the subject, you'd think BP was involved. I've read articles that blamed the fickle nerd audience, the fickle hipster audience, the marketing, the release date, the prerelease strategy, the subject matter...everything. They probably all contributed in some way, but to me the largest problem is that in order to transcend genre restrictions, the movie has to appeal to everybody...and it has to be incredible. It can't be good, it has to be beyond that. I thought it was very good, but not transcendent. Most of that has nothing to do with Edgar Wright, who wrote and directed Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. Not only were the visuals in Pilgrim beautiful, not only was the film paced absolutely brilliantly, but almost all the performances were spot on, with the only real problem being, you know, the lead. Cera has the diversity of a Toby Keith concert; he's so one-note that he's the only thing worse than Nickleback. You get the idea. What I'm trying to say is that when Vanity Fair talked to Wright about Ant-Man, the smaller (teehee) staked Marvel superhero film he's been attached to for an eternity, I still get hopeful.
He describes it as a "super spy movie" with someone who just happens to have a "very particular power," namely shrinking, which would honestly come in quite handy if you were a spy I would imagine. What I liked most about his comments were that he referenced how every "shrinking man" movie (and every comic book movie really) is now all about what is happening to that particular character and not a bigger issue. I'd love to see them cover Ant-Man's deep, deep origins (he's a scientist who created something that lets him shrink, the end) over the credits and have us explore an adventure from the character right away. I will say that part of me got really hopeful when Marvel was bought by Disney (which hasn't brought about the apocalypse others predicted just yet) was the idea that someone like Pixar could capture one of these (ahem) tiny characters and make a movie out of them. I still think this is the best choice for that, but if they want to give it to Wright, so be it. So, to wrap up, Scott Pilgrim was good but not great, hipsters are fickle, I like ant people, and your pants are wet. That should cover it.

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God bless people who work harder than me

Slashfilm.com took the time to compile various comic book-related news and info from recent days into one handy-dandy post. Apparently, when you get paid to just work on a blog, you have time for such things. When you have many other jobs, you just post a link to someone else's blog and resynopsize it on your own, adding flippant comments to make yourself feel as though you contributed. This just in: I have now realized that I'm lame. This won't change anything you read here, but know that I know that.

Starting in the same order as those hard workers from Slash (not the guy from Guns N' Roses, who we all know is in no way a hard worker), they report that fellow hard-working blog Collider took part in a conference call with Joss Whedon. If you don't know who that is, I'm really going to have a hard time capturing your interest for the next few minutes. The man picked to direct The Avengers was asked about this task, to which he replied "I have no directing skills." As we all know, this is self-deprecation...although he hasn't done anything NEAR the level of the giganto-flick that this superhero orgy will be. I wonder how many blog hits I'll get for including the phrase "superhero orgy?" Also, that was all of the news reported from that conference call. This begs the question, what was the point of that conference call?

Alvin Sargent has been brought back in to work on the Spider-man reboot's script, which I constantly convince myself is just a nightmare I created in my own brain after bad Thai food. THR notes that Sargent has worked on every Spidey film, which is interesting because that's both a compliment and an insult. Supposedly he's the guy who works on the more emotional stuff...so it's up in the air the degree of responsibility Sargent has in the "emo Peter Parker" department. This incredibly small news nugget only serves to remind me that despite my wishing it away, they really, truly are going to ruin Spider-man, aren't they? They're going to Twilight-up my favorite character in the world, presumably to punish me for something I didn't really do. I'm like the A-Team, really.

Now, the big one. How many of you recognize this guy?

Again, if you don't know him, I'm seriously wondering if you meant to read a different blog this morning. The Playlist talked to a source who supposedly said that Fillion is up for a small role in Captain America and a big, big, big role in The Avengers and beyond. This is clearly nothing more than fan dreaming, but what can I say, it's a good dream. The role is Hank Pym. Ant-Man. This would be incredibly perfect for Fillion, who has deserved not only his own superhero role, but something far grander than "Castle" for a long time now. He has oodles of charisma and a bond with Whedon that some may describe as akin to a "heterosexual life-mate." I don't care if this is just a rumor right now. It needs to happen. So let's push hard, now and make this a reality.

So there you have it. There's the news from other people, collected by someone else, and retyped here for your benefit. I'm a valuable member of society. At least my last name isn't McClammy.

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Ryan's Junk Drawer

Hey, hey, hey. It's time for my junk! Wait...that doesn't sound right... This week brings us a veritable plethora (doesn't "Veritable Plethora" sound like a hard-core Christian rock band?) of movie nuggets, including some Pixar potentials, dueling super-prisons, a further shuffle down for The Road, and a pair of trailers that could not be more different. Let's dive in.

Here are the 5 top stories that didn't quite deserve their own post:

1.) Pixar poo-pooed - When Disney bought Marvel, the only thing that stopped some die hard Marvel zombies from eating their own brains was the thought that Pixar could both serve as a model for involvement between the two entities AND the thought that Pixar might play (not pee) in Marvel's pool. The rumor that quickly came up was that John Lasseter, head of Pixar and rich, richer motha-trucka, was eyeing Ant Man for their first foray into fanboy fare. Hell, Entertainment Weekly reported that the news was true, and they are never wrong (except when Owen Glieberman lies about seeing a movie...did I say that out loud...YES I DID! I DON'T FEAR YOU GLIEBERMAN, BRING IT). Well, CHUD.com contacted Edgar Wright, who has long been associated with the project, and it turns out that if this rumor is true...neither Wright nor Marvel's honcho of movies Kevin Feige know anything about it. Wright is tonally perfect for the film and, although Pixar's involvement sounds great on any subject, I tend to believe Feige and Wright on this one. Now, maybe both are true, and Pixar DOES want it, and Wright and Feige haven't been told yet. In that case, my money is on Pixar gettin' what they want. They are the most powerful company not trying to currently block health care reform.

2.) Supermax vs Supermax - So for an eternity now, David Goyer and Justin Marks have worked on a bad-ass sounding script that saw the Green Arrow trapped inside a prison for supervillains titled Supermax. It sounds fun, doesn't it? Well, Sony just bought a script called Supermax and that made all the nerds get excited because the description was this: "Supermax takes place in a Maximum Security Prison for the Super-Natural as a skilled guard must join forces with a lethal inmate after a riot ensues in order to fight his way through various monsters and mad-men in order to survive." Beyond the fact that apparently supernatural beings from the beyond get funky capitalization rules, that synopsis sounds pretty much like the OTHER Supermax. Yeah, that's right, there are TWO scripts called Supermax and they sound damn near identical. I smell a lawsuit...and bacon (that may be my fingers...my fingers always smell like bacon). So, long story short, we may get one movie called Supermax...or two...or none. See why this didn't make the regular news.

3.) Winding on down, The Road - So I got an email from a PR rep that The Road is moving...AGAIN. This film has done more shuffling than the 1985-1986 Chicago Bears. It was supposed to be practically on DVD by this point, and now we have to wait AGAIN as the film is due in November...Thanksgiving to be exact. This makes no GD sense. (A) The date is PACKED with movies, including Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ninja Assassin, Old Dogs, and Nine, which is a movie FROM THE SAME COMPANY that is also hoping for Oscar. WTF? This isn't a sign of a lack of confidence to be sure, it's not like they're dumping it...but what the hell is going on with this movie? An early screening review I read called it one of the most important films of the last 20 years. A review in Variety last week called it a turd. I just want to see the thing. This is the strangest release tango I've ever seen.

4.) Get high - Part of Up in the Air was shot in Omaha, and one of my friends may or may not have a tiny frame or two that he appears in. That's not why I'm excited. Vera Farmiga is one of the reasons I'm excited (yum), but the real reason is that Jason Reitman's film looks like a tender, tragic Thank You For Smoking (his first and best film). Don't take my word on it, watch this and tell me how good it looks.




5.) It's not that good - You'd be hard pressed not to think that Black Dynamite is going to be awesome, but EVERYTHING I heard has been pretty much meh on this faux exploitation film. Oh, I'm still going to have to see it, but I don't have that high of hopes. UPDATE: There is a reader out there who knows his, her, or hermaphroditic-track-star stuff. I have been alerted to several positive things said about the entire affair and must have imagined people other than one critic hating it. My B yo. Still, the trailer rocks, right?



That's the junk for this week. I promise to find more juicy bits of tid next week...provided you scroll down on the blog a bit and pick me up one of those items I asked for. What? It seems like a fair trade.