It all starts a week from tonight! I cannot wait. For the rest of the Tuesday nights in June I will be in nerd heaven…nerdvana?
The Extended Editions on the BIG SCREEN. I am particularly excited about:
“The events will begin with a new and personal introduction for each film from The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson captured from the set of his current film, and The Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hobbit“
These are going to be some late nights! Perhaps I can salvage some of my sleep time if I wear my Aragorn Underoos and Hobbit-feet slippers to the theater?
Largely bloodless bullet-filled orgy of video game violence? Check!
Attractive young women in a variety of leather outfits? Check!
A geek-stravaganza of computer-generated visual wizardry? Check!
Virtually no story to get in the way of the eye candy? Double Check!
Unprepared? I think not. Sucker Punch was by and large exactly what I expected it to be. Yes, it can be successfully argued that the film caters to the basic adolescent male fantasy, but hey, even I like to be catered to now and again.
There could be no more apt description of the film based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic book series than the phrase “style over substance”. For Scott Pilgrim vs. The World has style coming out the wazoo. From the opening credits to the end credits it is a unique, visually brilliant film, well worth watching for that very reason alone. But its style with a capital “S” magnifies the weak script and leaves the viewer wondering what could have been had the story been penned by someone with the writing chops to match the visual splendor.
This past Saturday evening the combination of anticipation for the Kansas City Science Fiction and Fantasy Society’s Conquest 41 coupled with the sounds of my daughter and her boyfriend playing Lego Star Wars on the Playstation 2 reminded me that I hadn’t indulged in any celebration of the 30th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back. I wasn’t about to let May get away without my own personal acknowledgment of a series, and most especially a film, that has had such a profound effect on me.
I quickly visited the basement library to bring up a few goodies to help me celebrate, one being the Roger Kastel autographed print of my favorite piece of Star Wars art, the post image for The Empire Strikes Back. This was a lovely surprise gift given to me a few years ago by Deslily.
Over the next 24 hours I would re-read a beloved Star Wars novel, watch The Empire Strikes Back, and travel back in time down a road littered with memories so palpable that they could have happened yesterday.
I have to admit, I have a big man-crush for Robert Downey Jr. as an actor. Since reviving his career with the film Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, he has had a knack for choosing roles that best allow him to display his strengths. The strength of 2008’s Iron Man was due in large part to the choice to cast RDJ as billionaire playboy Tony Stark.
I also have to admit that when I saw initial trailers for Iron Man 2 with Mickey Rourke as the villain, I was concerned. It isn’t that I don’t like Mickey Rourke, in the rare role–like Marv in Sin City–he is brilliant. I just did not see him carrying the evil mastermind role in this film. Thankfully, he did not have to. Director Jon Favreau and his writing team made some very good choices with this second installment in what one assumes will be a franchise.
