Cythusly's weblog

I hope everyone has seen the featurette for the (possibly defunct?) movie based on Alan Moore’s Watchmen, but if you haven’t Superhero Hype has you covered! Check it out, then check out what’s going on with Warner Bros. and Fox fighting about who legally owns the rights to the movie… when I think about it, it kind of reminds me of that awful Fantastic Four movie Fox made on next to nothing to keep the rights to the Fantastic Four franchise, they haven’t made any such movie (read: no such movie has surfaced) to keep ahold of the Watchmen rights and I’m no lawyer so I can only add conjecture to the mix: Fox can’t continue to own the rights to the Watchmen and sit on it for close to 20 years. And if they can, fuck you Fox. I hate your politics and now it’s fucking with a movie I am actually kind of excited about (but still wary of very possibly sucking.)

Here’s to hoping something gets worked out in time for the March 6th release of the Watchmen.

I was just surfing around for new movies and came across one that interested me as a lover of music and music history: Cadillac Records. Check out the trailer.

I guess it was released on the 5th of this month and I’m actually really surprised I missed any news on this one (thanks to school probably, that or a crippling WoW addiction at the moment). Chronicling Chess Records it stars Adrian Brody as Leonard Chess, Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Mos Def as Chuck Berry, Eamonn Walker as Howlin’ Wolf, and Beyoncé Knowles (meh) as Etta James.

Holy fucking shit! This really looks great. I’m really not a fan of Beyoncé Knowles at all, but I’m willing to be optimistic with this one.

Chess Records began as a small store in Chicago called Aristocrat Records. Leonard Chess and his brother Phil bought out the company and renamed it Chess Records. Leonard and Phil would bring in artists they would find and have them sit in with their session musicians, many of them accomplished artists in their own right. Many of the above artists had recorded with Chess, blues musicians and even The Rolling Stones, from England, before they were the “bad boys” the bad version of The Beatles.

An amazing number of well known artists recorded with Chess in the 50′s and 60′s, among my favourites are Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, & Etta James. It was the home for the Chicago Blues, an electrified version of the Delta Blues.

I will be seeing this as soon as finals are over next week. I’m a gigantic music nerd, and Chess was around at the beginning of R&B music, back before it was overproduced tripe, back when it meant something to rise up from nothing and become something. Back when the music was… amazing.

-Tyler

Alright, I was just reading over an article at superherohype.com; they’ve been really doing a lot of coverage on X-Men Origins: Wolverine and I can say I’m completely underwhelmed. When I first heard Ryan Reynolds was going to be one of my favourite characters in the film: Deadpool, I was skeptical. Now there’s pictures of Gambit makes him look like a fucking tranny in his shiny purple shirt and “beard” that would be shamed by a 14 year-old.

And now – and NOW, I hop on imdb and check that, oh, Dominic Monaghan is going to play Beak. Seriously!? Beak was a fucking lame character to begin with, now they’re going to lame him up even more in an attempt to make him visually interesting and fun on screen? Who is writing these fucking movies!? I had to fucking check wikipedia because it’s been so goddamned long since I’ve even read the New X-Men series and he was so utterly lame and forgettable (until the kind of Hawkman-esque appearance of him after the AoA-like story arc, the beginning of which I just had to quit reading… yes, it was that bad) that I really had to make sure I was thinking of the right character.

Anyway, I know Wolverine is a cash cow property because of whatever-fucking-reasons (“he’s a badass, and tall, and has cool facial hair and can’t die!” ugh…) so much so they’ve already make 3 fucking movies about him and now they’re making a 4th that is apparently going to be based on his origin (which from what I’ve seen is nothing like Origin, thank fucking Christ, but still if you have source material, especially relatively CURRENT source material: USE IT) I wonder if they’re going to establish bone claws? Or had they already done that in one of his other movies? X-Men? I can’t remember and don’t have the angry energy to check.

Bottom line with the Wolverine movies is this: I’ll definitely be seeing it, because there’s not been much out that’s been good and this is no exception. I’m pretty sure I won’t be surprised by OMG SO FUCKING AWESOME to discount my hatred for a character I liked as a kid reading the comics and watching the Animated Series. I reserve the right to be angry because that’s who I am.

-Tyler

I got to the con a little bit earlier today than yesterday, it was really nice knowing that there was a tram that ran right from where I was staying to the convention center – it saved about 3 hours of trying to find parking, yes, Comicon is that fucking insane.

I got back around to the Ghostbusters VG booth and met the canon 5th Ghostbuster – Ryan, one of the developers. The guy was really awesome, and loves the property as much as I do. He was really interested in what everyone had to say about the game. After playing it I only had ONE complaint (that I didn’t get a chance to tell him because he had left for lunch) and that was when the characters put away their throwers the animation is not realistic. That’s it. Something in a game about catching ghosts that doesn’t look right because it’s so difficult as to being almost impossible.

After that I ended up collecting a nifty con exclusive LEGO Joker and Batman that I will probably end up giving to one of my friends (he loves LEGOs and I missed his birthday this weekend.) Swagged some other nifty, useless stuff. I’ll probably post a picture on Monday or something.

I saw the entire Guild cast standing around taking in a huddle and I decided not to bother them and just find them while they’re signing later.

I was excited to meet quite a few people that I’d missed on Friday. Wil Wheaton (I got his book “Happiest Days” and talked to him for a bit and he was cool, there’s another story here and I’ll tell that a little later on); Scott Kurtz from PvP, the Candyman, Ken Foree and Cassandra Peterson (awesome lady, I did not expect her to be dressed as Elvira but surprisingly enough she was!) and got my picture with most of them.

I also met Amy & Felicia from The Guild and I think I kind of freaked Felicia out a bit, which kind of sucks. They told me the rest of the cast was signing upstairs and I went and found them (getting my picture taken with an awesome Red Power Ranger on the way) and they were very cool! Robyn and Sandeep were very enthusiastic about the Ghostbuster uniform and Robyn was even more excited when I came back with the pack on. I got a few pictures with them and they all turned out… well, so many people were taking pictures of us it got a little confusing. But there was a picture with Vince, Robyn and Jeff that turned out great and the one where Sandeep jumped in that two of us were looking at different cameras. Oh well, it was a very “Zaboo!” moment.

After that the con was kind of winding down and I stuck around for part of the Masquerade showing in one of the satellite showing rooms since I didn’t know Ballroom 20 wasn’t filled to capacity. I left just as there was a chick dancing around as Emma Frost and there was a nip slip and the lights went OUT. I felt really bad for the lady, but come on… who doesn’t wear pasties underneath a tube top? Not that I’m complaining.

After that it was back to the friends place and slept in the tub ’cause there was snoring.

Yay cons.

-Tyler

Comicon has been great so far. Been able to play some of the Ghostbusters game, very fun, need to check it out some more today (Saturday) and I also couldn’t help but notice – Marvel Nemesis 2? Wasn’t Marvel Nemesis a huge steaming pile of crap? Don’t shake your head I bought it, I know how huge and steamy and smelly it was.

Checked out the WB booth and got some cool interior (and a few exterior) shots of Night Owl’s ship (think it’s screen used from Watchmen.) Didn’t swag anything from that booth, so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for swag-ing shit. I gave up on doing the little scavenger hunt for LEGO Joker pieces, and when I was feeling more up to it they apparently had run out of heads and stopped doing it for the day.

Web of Shadows looks pretty damn cool, I didn’t hunker down and play any of it but that’s why there’s 2 days left at the con. I also need to check out the Warhammer Online MMO. I went by what seemed to be the conglomeration of awesome webcomic artsts and writers – met R.K. Milholland of something*positive, his girlfriend Rinny (dressed at Zatanna, sooo cute), and Jennie Breeden from The Devil’s Panties, and got a picture with the three of them. I also met the writer/artist from Two/Lumps and he was a very awesome guy, he had been doing a few sketches so I didn’t want to bother him with another – hopefully I can stop by and get a sketch from him today!

I dropped by the Penny-Arcade booth and met Jerry & Mike… and honestly I was less than impressed. I don’t know if I managed to piss them off in the few seconds I was there but they did not seem happy that I was there at all. Maybe I cut off a line or something that I just didn’t see. But the two of them were just sitting there doing nothing. Oh well, I didn’t expect them to be really cool and kiss readers asses – because their pay-grade is way beyond false appreciation of fans. That’s not to say that they don’t appreciate their fans, I’m sure they do. Whatever slight they concocted for me to have committed I hope it was something as awesome as flipping off a box of kittens or punching a baby.

More later,

-Tyler

As most of you might know already the trailer for the Watchmen is out. I was actually really excited to see this but after watching it I am honestly a little more upset than I thought I would be, I mean how difficult is it to make a movie about people who don’t have super powers but dress like super-heroes? From watching the Comedian punch tile and mortar in huge chunks out of a wall to seeing the (young) Silk Spectre apparently flying and coming down through a roof? Come on!

I honestly can’t judge it too much, I mean it’s just the first trailer after all and it very well could be made to look more sensational for us American audiences which only seem to want action and explosions. Of course I can remember watching the trailer for Fight Club and thinking “what the fuck is this?” and swearing I would never see what actually became one of my favourite books and movies.

I really do hope the “visionary” director of 300 – which I honestly had a problem with the changing of the story – Zach Snyder does Watchmen well. We don’t need it to be a super-powered romp through a small conflict, we need the seemingly normal people that fight crime because it’s right and not because they’ve got super powers. Night Owl is freaking Batman and he should be closer to that than let’s say… Superman. The book was about the (at the time) current state of the world and how a comic book could mirror that. Let’s keep it that way. Two people in the story have super powers – Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias, and the latter isn’t nearly as fantastical as the former.

However, I have to give it props, some of the scenes they showed are freaking exactly from the comic which is an amazing feat.

-Tyler

ps. the Dr. Manhattan being deconstructed thing in the beginning looks awesome!

I was just watching some television and came across a funny “Inside the Actor’s Studio” commercial for Hellboy II with James Lipton and Hellboy. Checked out YouTube and (of course) there’s a few of them there so here you all go:

-Tyler

Well it looks like I completely glossed over this part when I was writing the post about the 40′s Minutemen – there will be the Black Freighter (the pirate story line) webisodes and compilation DVD!

I’m overjoyed that they’re actually shooting this and releasing the webisodes and DVD, but I’m really hoping that they release the Black Freighter on the Watchmen DVD, or that it’ll be something on the Special Edition otherwise I will be very sad – and there will be two spaces taken up for Watchmen related DVDs on my shelf.

-Tyler

A few nights ago I got together with some friends and a bottle of Stoli, in celebration of my friend Chris’ 24th birthday, to watch Indi 4 – and I’m so glad there was a bottle of Stoli. I told myself I was going to hold off on a review until I re-watched the original three, but I thought it would be more fair to do a review of the movie with my initial review and (if I find myself feeling any different) I might do a followup review.

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There was a post on “Ain’t It Cool” news with a picture of the original Minutemen (like in the comic) in a 1940 lineup – check it out. Man, that is badass! I do have very high hopes for this movie, and I hope that I’m not let down by it. I know they’re leaving out one plot-thread (the pirate comic, for those who’ve read it) and that doesn’t so much bother me because it just added commentary to what was happening in the main comic. Hopefully they’ll film those parts and release it in something like fear.net did with the “30 Days of Night: Blood Trails” shorts.

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