Friday, June 15, 2007

Free Form Comments

Say whatever you want to in the comments to this post -- random, off topic thoughts, ideas, suggestions, questions, recommendations, criticism (which can be anonymous), surveys, personal news, self-promotion, and so on.

I will have a post up tomorrow for my weekly film and TV post; in the comments to that post you can review the Fantastic Four movie, which I will not be seeing (my post will be on Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth).

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Children of Men was fantastic. I look forward to reading your review. I also have no plans to see the new FF movie. Has everyone forgotten how utterly crappy the first one was? I don't really expect a quantum leap forward.

As for plugs, as always, please check out the web series I'm on, Something To Be Desired. We're done for the season, but there are now 4 full seasons of material up on the site and available through iTunes.

Also, if you happen to be in the Pittsburgh area in August, PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 has just been announced for the weekend of 8/18. It's a free meet-up/workshop for bloggers, podcasters, and anyone else interested in new media.

Timothy Callahan said...

I'm a few weeks late on this topic, Geoff, but I finally listened to your Fraction/Klock podcast and got caught up on all my blog reading, and I have a few points to make:

1) I'm 35, I've been married for 10 years, I have two kids and a career, and I totally don't understand this idea that as you grow older you're supposed to "grow out of" your love for comics and popular culture. I'm just as excited about great television, and movies, and comics as I was 10 or 20 years ago. And now I get to share that excitement with my kids (my son, especially, is really starting to get into comics). Plus, you, Geoff Klock, think deeply about the type of art you enjoy and why you enjoy it, so you not only have a love for these works of pop culture, but you have strong aesthetic theories to back up your judgment. Anyone who says otherwise is just intellectually dull, and you don't want to hang out with people like that anyway.

2) Casanova is pretty fucking great.

3) I would like to hear you and Fraction really get into a dialogue without the need to "play nice" so as not to offend the Comic Geek Speak guys (who seemed pretty clearly bewildered by a lot of the heady comments you guys were making back and forth). Fraction, in particular, seemed to be holding back a bit.

4) Keep thinking about the Legion of Super-Heroes. Let it seep into your subconscious as the final part of The Lightning Saga unfolds.

That's it.

neilshyminsky said...

I have little to add - I'm knee deep in coursework and haven't had time to update my own blog in a week or so - but I look forward to your comments on both films. I saw Children of Men in March and blogged on it myself, and I saw Pan's Labyrinth last weekend: I found the former as easy to write about as I find the latter difficult, probably because I'm much more familiar with the texts and figures being referenced in CoM than PL.

Dante Kleinberg said...

I guess I'll take this opportunity to mention that I did a short post this week on my own blog about why James Bond is the only truly successful action franchise and what other action franchises could learn from it. Click my name to check it out.

I'll also say Children of Men is an amazing, amazing movie. Pan's Labyrinth is pretty great too, and even my friend who hates subtitled movies (or reading in general) loved it.

Dante Kleinberg said...

Oh, and by the by, the first FF was terrible but I'll still see this one because I like comic book movies. Yeah I'm a sucker. It's all good. If I sat through Elektra, I'm sure I can sit through anything. (and hey, it's only 89 minutes so why not?)

Kyle Hadley said...

I am one of the few people who actually really enjoyed the first FF movie, but the second one is total trash. The last 30 minutes has some alright action stuff, but it is very underwhelming all the way through. But of all the faults the dialogue is the biggest fault. YIKES!

Anonymous said...

madd_hadder, you have confirmed the fear that I've had since seeing the previews. "You're on fire!" "Ya think!?!" That's just a horrible bit of dialogue, and it made me pessimistic about the entire film in that regard.

But I also agree with you about the first FF movie. It's not great by any means, but it was reasonably entertaining, I thought, in general. It's certainly no worse than the Spider-Man films, which so many people inexplicably adore. (Oh yeah, I went there. But please, Geoff or Dante or Neil or somebody, explain why the first two Spider-Man movies are good!)

Happy weekend, everybody!

Kyle Hadley said...

Jason, that bit of dialogue could be considered genius in comparison to the cheese ball stuff between the foursome.

LurkerWithout said...

1st a plug for a friends' movie "reviews": Spoony Experiment

2nd: Skrulls? SERIOUSLY?

3rd: Thoughts on the return of Beak in the new New Warriors?

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the FF moviemakers captured some of the worst aspects of Stan's dialogue, but left Lee/Kirby's wonder, imagination, and charm on the cutting room floor.

I really hope they give the FF movie franchise a total reboot someday. It's certainly possible - look at Batman. Ah well, at least we got one decent FF movie; too bad it was called The Incredibles.

Anonymous said...

Pan's Labyrinth is fantastic. And Del Toro's earlier Devils' Backbone is even better IMHO.

Timothy Callahan said...

I also felt that Devil's Backbone was better than Pan's Labyrinth. Significantly better.

Anonymous said...

Well, I loved Pan's Labyrinth, so I'll definitely be looking for Devil's Backbone.