Friday, May 04, 2007

Free Form Comments

Hey its Free Form Comments: say whatever you want to say here: introduce yourself, make your first comment if you are a lurker, voice any random or off-topic thought, suggestion, comment, recommendation, question from the past week, or whenever, and shamelessly promote your blog or accomplishments.

With Spiderman 3 I am all for using this space to review the film. I am going to try to see it Saturday, but the mixed reviews have me worried.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed Spidey 3, though I do admit that I am predisposed toward Spider-Man, period. It wasn't perfect, and it was probably a little overlong, but I dropped eight bucks on it and left satisfied. I wouldn't say that it was better than Spider-Man 2 or X-Men 2, but I think I'd rank it above Spider-Man 1. The action was good (and kind of shockingly brutal) and the relationship drama was interesting.

The pacing seemed a little funky, though. There were a few big breaks between some scenes that hurt the momentum of the subplots a bit.

hcduvall said...

Well, I saw SM3 a couple of nights ago...so as toward a conspicuously vague review: apparently, people are expecting the apotheosis of comic book movies in Spider-Man 3. I found it rather entertaining, but then, I'm one who didn't think the second one was the near apotheosis of comic book movies either.

Having it sink in a bit more now there's stuff I would've liked more of and less of, without dipping into acrimonious fanboy complaints, but I enjoyed it. The quirky pacing actually made it more like what it was reading the comic growing up, actually. And it handled the one nerdboy complaint (Sandman) I would have had well. It's not going to be anyone's new favorite, but I actually liked that it focused on character, which was always my favorite parts of the movies and Raimi's strongest suit.

Mind you, I've worked out what I to happen in the next three movies...

hcduvall said...

And it was definately overstuffed, but I also prefer clunky mashy bits rather than having it be a longer movie. Mind you I think were to you excise a couple whole subplots we'd be talking about an entirely other movie, and given the way studios make summer movies these days, it'd still be overlong.

Dante Kleinberg said...

I think I'll shamelessly promote my blog then, as suggested.

It is dantebk.blogspot.com. It contains pop culture reviews, dick jokes, ideas for t-shirts, personal reflections, and lots of thoughts (and occasional updates) on my aspiring writing career.

I've linked to Geoff's blog, and Geoff if you see fit to add me to your Blog Links section, I'd surely appreciate it.

sara d. reiss said...

Shameless Self-Promotion? What about shameless gloating?

I GOT IN TO GRAD SCHOOL BITCHES!!!!!!!!!!!! YEAAAAAAAAH!!! TAKE THAT!!!!

I'm so looking forward to joining the masses of the overeducated but underemployed.

Does McDonalds give discounts to MFA holders?

Anonymous said...

I've got a piece of fiction in this month's Chickadee, a well-known Canadian children's magazine.

It's my third story for them and is easily my favorite. It's not online anywhere, but I'll happily send a .pdf file of the text and illustrations to anyone who shoots me an e-mail request(troyagain@shaw.ca).

Anonymous said...

Congrats, Sara!

sara d. reiss said...

I think I should've put a comma after "grad school" and before "bitches" cos as it stands now, grammatically, it appears I have recently become enamoured (ie:" got in to") woman who are in graduate schoole (ie: "grad school bitches")

whoops!

Troy: THANKS!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Geoff, I'm sure you've read Alan Moore's Supreme -- but I can't remember, have you ever said what you thought of it? I'm guessing it's a little too nostalgic for your tastes.

Anyway, the only reason I bring it up is because I read Supreme #48 the other night, and there's a mention of a villain named "Doctor Clock." Which is awesome. (That same issue also has an android called "Super-Patroit" -- I think an Erik Larsen creation -- and I realized last night that his speech pattern is almost identical to Rorschach's ... which is just freakin' hilarious, especially when he's reminsicing about the silver age. ["Everything too changeable back then. Twice a month, average, got turned into weird things: statues, shrubs, babies ..."])

It's good stuff.

Anonymous said...

I just finished watching all the firefly episodes this week. I first saw the movie. Now, let's lead to ask. Is Captain Mal the greatest protaganist ever created?

Anonymous said...

I love your blog, Geoff. I'm a grad student at Georgia State (Ph.D. in Victorian Lit), and my Modern Grammar paper is both way overdue and kicking my ass...which led to the following quotes:

"It's like I'm a scholar-monkey, going from vine to thin little self-written vine amongst the quote-trees."

"All hail the power of the block-quote, and fear its monolithic might!"

"It's getting to the point where everything looks like this: 'As Blah notes/argues/posits, "Quote quote quote quote quote ad infinitum" (Blah 230). What he said.'"

After this, though, I'm checking out Spider-Man 3 with the man and seeing for myself how it goes.

Kyle Hadley said...

I Loved Spiderman 3. It had so many great Sam Raimi moments and thrilled me at every corner. I didn't mind the slow moments because right around the corner was a great laugh or a cool action sequence. I have waited 20 years to see Venom on screen and I was not disappointed

I work at a movie theater and we have that movie and it tends ot breakdown like this, as least for last night and today:

kids: Love it
Tweens:Love it
Teenagers: half love it and half hate it
20 somethings: "I didn't care about the story, I just wanted more action."
Over 30: They all seem to be loving it.

Oh and Geoff, did you ever think of switching majors? I am an English major but my film classes seem to be more interesting than my ENglish Survey courses and am considering a change.

James said...

I want to complain about Spider-Man 3 but I don't think I can without getting into spoiler territory. It's not Batman And Robin or X-Men 3, but it's a pretty huge mis-step.

James said...

I've just seen that Raimi wrote this one, which simultaneously makes a whole lot of sense and just makes me madder. There's stuff in here that he had to have known no fanboy would enjoy. While that's not always a bad thing, it certainly didn't make for a great Spider-Man 3.

Geoff Klock said...

JP: yeah, way to navel gazing for my taste. And a too obvious attempt to be "post-modern" or whatever. But yes I remember Dr. Clock. He appeared for a moment in one of Moore's Youngblood issues and had a clock for a head. Fraction's Dokkktor Klockhammer will kick his ass.

Karen: glad to have you here. continue to post. And I know the feeling from my diss, which is still sitting in a room in oxford waiting to be examined by official whoevers.

MH: first, it is too late to switch majors, since I have submitted my doctoral thesis in English and will have a doctorate whenever Oxford gets around to looking at it. But I would never switch from English to study film. I can get a solid ed in film on my own; the English degree is more versatle and has more background (the major has been around longer, more big names as a result, more cashe), plus English has helped me to appreciate film, but if I majored in film I doubt I would be reading a lot of poetry now.

James: I am going to review spiderman sunday or monday and when I do I will open the thread up to spoilers.

Velva said...

I had very mixed feelings about Spider-Man 3. On the one hand, it was a good story and one that needed to be told, but on the other hand Tobey McGuire just seemed sort of... bored of being Peter.

I loved Harry Osborn's story for this series. I found myself really enjoying his character and feeling invested in what happened to him. One thing though... "New Goblin?" WTF? The character name is Hobgoblin, Mr. Raimi. Get it right!

JJ Jameson was awesome, as he has been for the past two movies. Flint Marko... I'd love to see him again. Also I would have liked to see more Venom/Eddie Brock and get a better sense of who he was after he got his power.

There were a couple of sequences I could have done without, and they mostly involved dance numbers. /sigh

Geoff Klock said...

The review of Spiderman 3 is up tomorrow. With spoilers. I figure everyone here should have seen it. If not, they can just scroll past it. But I need the freedom to talk about it and I am not waiting for the DVD to come out.

Unknown said...

I'm late getting to this comment thread, but here's my usual weekly blog plug: I reviewed Spider-Man 3, and also a bunch of other movies. I reviewed comics that came out last week, and the graphic novels Rocketo volume 2 and Cinema Panopticum. I think that's everything worth mentioning.

Oh, and congratulations to Sara, and to Geoff for his new book!