Television Posts

Bring Out Your Dead.

With Tuesday night’s episode of Deadliest Warrior (featuring William Wallace versus Shaka Zulu,) having aired, all the matches for this season that I’m actually interested in (read as: those that don’t involve guns) have now played out, and I can kick back and recline on the pile of dead losers until another season of ridiculousness rolls around. I must admit that I was a little disappointed in the Legends’ conflict, though.

With the exception that the warriors had names, it might have been any other episode of DW. Nothing particularly innovative in terms of testing debuted, in the end it was a lot of cut meat and broken stuff, coupled with the standard macho posturing. From the beginning, the Zulu team was losing, and as far as I’m concerned, they knew it. The more that you have to explain how your fighter’s style would allow you to avoid/overcome your opponent’s blows, the less of an advantage you’ve got. This and other lessons played out over the course of the ancient warrior fights; if I can bring myself to watch the modern ones, then I’ll come back and compare. But for now, here’s a recap:

Apache vs. Gladiator

The one that started it all.

The one that started it all.

My Initial assessment:
Holy crap, this show is awesome. Look at that guy punch that cow carcass with that thing! What? Aww, he got hit with an arrow’ he loses? Nuts.

The lesson: Range wins Deadliest Warrior, and the simulated battle at the end takes a fair amount of artistic license, despite all the hard science leading up to it.

Ninja vs. Spartan

The image so nice, I used it twice.

The image so nice, I used it twice.

My initial assessment:
This looks like another bad matchup of stealth versus strength. Take away the anime-style powers that real ninjas never had, and it seems to get worse. Perhaps the ninja will surprise us, but the Spartan seems to have more armor and a bigger shield than the Gladiator did, and I’m betting that the Spartan team will play up the shield-wall tactic.

The Aftermath: Armand Dorian said it best when he explained that “the Ninja could hurt the Spartan, but he couldn’t kill the Spartan.’ The Ninja was a skirmisher, the Spartan was a tank. A tank that rolled over the Ninja and barely paused to stop in the face of black eggs and shiruken.

The lesson: Catastrophic amounts of damage win Deadliest Warrior. While this isn’t a factor a lot of the time, considering that most of the weapons maim or kill pretty obviously, when a team talks more about how their fighter would be moving around (the Ninja and Shaka teams did a lot of hard selling on that angle), or how tough their warrior would be, and/or how little the opponent’s just-recorded X-bajillion pounds of pressure would be laughed off (the Maori and Viking teams did a lot of hard selling in that regard), they’re probably losing. The Samurai team is a bit of an exception to this rule, however…

Viking vs. Samurai

If Fuji were there, The Salt would have turned the tides.

If Fuji had been there, The Salt would have turned the tides.

My initial assessment:
This can’t end well for anyone. But it’ll probably be fun to watch. Either the Samurai knocks the Viking down with the one sword stroke that they are famous for, or the Viking goes berserk and lays into him with an axe.

The Aftermath: Like the Apache before him, the Samurai was an arguably better-trained warrior with a singular advantage- the bow and arrow. Katana vs.  Greataxe was pretty much irrelevant- both weapons were viciously effective. And in the weeks to come, range would prove more of a factor than anything else, whether it would take the form of a projectile, or a really long melee weapon.

The lesson: Range wins Deadliest Warrior, in case you’d forgotten.

Pirate vs. Knight

Scurvy againt Chivalry.

Scurvy againt Chivalry.

My Initial assessment:
Does the pirate have a pistol? If so, based solely on the severe advantage that the bow gave the Apache, the Pirate wins. I’m rooting for the Knight, though.

The Aftermath: The Pirate had 2 guns and a grenade.

A. GRENADE.

I cannot emphasize that enough. Even though the flintlock pistol was unable to penetrate the Knight’s armor, and the blunderbuss, well, blundered, the Pirate HAD A GRENADE! As far as non-powder weapons went, the Knight’s armor was more than effective, and the crossbow was comparable, but in the end, chivalry was truly dead.

The lesson: Technology wins Deadliest Warrior. Explosives also win Deadliest Warrior. Bullets win Deadliest Warrior as well, which is why I was disinterested in the modern warfare of Taliban vs. IRA, Yakuza vs. Mafia, and Green Beret vs. Spetznaz. It’s pretty obvious that guns kill people.

Maori Warrior vs. Shaolin Monk

Sleeper hit of the season.

Sleeper hit of the season.

My initial assessment:
I actually hadn’t been interested in this, and caught the repeat of it which played before Shaka Zulu vs. William Wallace. But it turned out to be an interesting matchup.

The Aftermath: The Maori weapons, while horrifyingly effective, were brittle, being made of animal parts and wood. How this affected the calculations of the final battle, I’ll never know, but in addition to that, the Shaolin’s twin hooks and chain were about twice the reach of the best that the Maori could bring to the table, on top of all his weapons being made of steel. In hindsight, this didn’t seem like a fair matchup.

The lesson: Technology (especially metallurgy) wins Deadliest Warrior. Range also wins Deadliest Warrior. Your warrior might laugh off some blows, but the gel gummies don’t lie. The fact that you might be moving around just means that you’ll lose a few more body parts before you go down.

William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu

From Wikipedia!

From Wikipedia!

My initial assessment:
This sounds ridiculous, and not necessarily in a bad way. However, since Wallace is known for shooting lightning bolts from his arse, I think that Zulu will not have much of a chance in this matchup.

The Aftermath: While the arse-lightning did not play a part in the combat, pretty much every thing that I’ve mentioned so far came true over the course of this (which would likely have been the most controversial show, if not for the Terrorist Jamboree airing on Sunday Night, or the kerfluffle that seemed to have arisen in the wake of Viking vs. Samurai,) came true. The Shaka team spent a lot of time insisting that Shaka would be able to get under Wallace’s guard and shank him up, and played up the only advantage that they had- the range of the Iwisa, a wooden mace that could be thrown some 30 feet.

The lesson: There’s no real lesson here; it’s just the final exam.

Based on these assessments, and my own desire to determine who truly is the Deadliest Warrior, here is a brief rundown of what would happen if there had been a bracket system (and who knows, perhaps there is something in the works for next season. I’ve got my fingers crossed.)

Apache faces off with Spartan. Spartan uses his large shield to protect himself from Apache’s storm of arrows, closes and goes to town on Apache. Being considerably more heavily armored and better-trained than the Gladiator, the Spartan finishes the Apache with a blow from his shield, followed by a spear thrust to the lower spine. Spartan advances to Round 3.

Samurai faces off with Pirate. Pirate throws a grenade at Samurai. Samurai explodes. Pirate advances to Round 3.

William Wallace faces off against Shaolin Monk. The claymore is deadlier than the whip chain, and has almost the same reach as the linked twin hooks. Combine that with chainmail and the targe shield, and Wallace takes Round 2 pretty easily, scoring a bye in Round 3, because he’s William Wallace and can name-drop, where the others are just stereotypes.

Spartan faces Pirate. Pirate shoots Spartan. Spartan armor, even the shield, is not as advanced as French plate, so Spartan keels over dead. Pirate might have to shoot him twice, but no grenade.

Pirate advances to finals to face William Wallace, and throws a grenade at him. Wallace lumbers through it. Pirate then shoots him twice, and Wallace dies.

Result: Pirate is the Deadliest Warrior, at least in the Ancient bracket. If you were to put a Green Beret in front of him, while he’s fumbling with flint and steel to light the fuse on his grenade, a magazine’s been emptied into his gut, spilling rum everywhere.

Pirate image by Marcus Ranum http://www.ranum.com/ , bombs by woodsy.

Pretty much sums it up.Pirate image (the same one as above) by Marcus Ranum (http://www.ranum.com ), bombs by woodsy.

I’ll see you in two weeks. Now that I’ve got nothing to watch on TV again, maybe I’ll find something else to talk about by then.

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May 28, 2009 | No Comments

A Pirate’s Life for Me…

Briefly continuing with my current obsession with Deadliest Warrior, the Viking was defeated by the Samurai primarily due to the Samurai’s undeniable advantage of distance, same as the Apache’s.

In more recent combats, the Spartan crushed the Ninja, in a contest that I had actually thought too close to call. The Ninja team did some hard selling, and their displays of prowess were remarkable. But as it turned out, the Ninja could ‘hurt the Spartan, but could not kill the Spartan’, whereas the Spartan’s attacks would demolish the Ninja each time they struck. There are compelling arguments about some of the Ninja’s weaponry, most notably the black eggs, but apparently the computerized judging system doesn’t take disabling blows into account, only killing ones. Tripping and blinding the Spartan should have given the Ninja a greater percentage of wins, if not the win. Still, I’m happy that a tank took the victory.

Ninja beats Samurai, but Spartan Beats Ninja. Therefore, Spartan also beats Viking. Deadliest Warrior Math at its finest.

Ninja beats Samurai, but Spartan Beats Ninja. Therefore, Spartan beats Samurai, and also beats Viking. Deadliest Warrior Math at its finest.

Next week is Pirate versus Knight, and I’m super-excited. While the Knight has full plate armor, some kind of big, honking shield, and a large range of weapons ranging from d6s to d12s worth of damage, the Pirate has an ace in the hole that no one suspected:

Epic. Hip Hop. Music.

Phat beats. It's what they use to fight ninjas.

Phat beats. It's what they use to fight ninjas.

Some of the music’s content alone would offend the Knight’s chivalric sensibilities to the point where the Pirate would be able to get a hit or two in, but on the whole, Captain Dan and the Scurvy Crew: From the Seas to the Streets is definitely worth a listen, even if you’ve never held a Letter of Marque.

C'mon, you know what I'm talking about.

C'mon. You know what I'm talking about.

I’ve always had a smiling and nodding acquaintance with pirates. Well, the popularized sort of pirates, who start every other sentence with ‘Arr’,'Nyar’, or in some rare cases, ‘Argh’.’ I’ve also been a longtime fan of rap music, and not always that which the General Public gives the biggest accolades to. “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s album, Be A Man, is prominent among my collection, for example.So when I came across “the most epic collection of pirate hip hop songs ever produced,” I was blown away.

The album is immersive. The beats bring the obvious nautical theme to mind, without being overly so, even when drawing directly from obvious staple songs, like ‘Blow the Man Down’, or ‘Drunken Sailor’.’ Other tracks, like ‘From the Seas to the Streets’ and ‘On the Account’ have more of a hip-hop feel to them, with an undercurrent of instrumentation that swells and ebbs like the tide.

The album features a wide and varied cast of swashbucklers, but the best two, as far as this blogger is concerned are Sea Dawg, the Scurvy Crew’s quartermaster, and Admirality, the representative of the, well, Admirality and the Royal British Navy, as well as a foil for the Crew. I think that this is because they never ‘break character’, with prochronism like some of the others (most notably Scott Free) do. That, and I find Sea Dawg’s nearly monotone delivery along with Admirality’s Britishesque pomp and swagger highly entertaining.

As for the lyrical content, as I mentioned, the album is unabashedly bawdy at times, although there is a relatively low expletive per minute ratio. The songs range from simple daily pirate life themes, like recruiting sailors or the pirate’s code, to the ridiculous, like Santa Claus, who seems to have clearly chosen a side in everyone’s favorite Internet meme rivalry. There’s even a few (not entirely flattering or PC) songs about wenches.

So, to conclude, the question of whether or not a flintlock pistol can fire a bullet through full plate has yet to be determined, but if it were a Battle of the Bands, then the Pirate would have The Edge, because the mic is just deadlier than the lute.

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April 23, 2009 | No Comments

Warriors of the World.

Who has the Deadliest Logo?

Who has the Deadliest Logo?

Check out my brief spate of Twittering through the premiere episode here: http://twitter.com/sapo_group

Savage killing machines from bygone eras tearing into each other for your amusement. No, I’m not talking about Jurassic Fight Club (although I will in a moment), I’m talking about Deadliest Warrior a show in a similarly opened vein that instead of examining fossil records and performing 35 minutes of forensics and speculation, fills its time slot with fairly graphic weapons simulations, heavily recycled footage of warriors doing their thing, and friendly banter.

This last item makes Warrior more interesting than Jurassic, for while both of the shows have essentially the same theme: ‘Here’s What We Think Might Have Happened in This Confrontation Based on Science’, Warrior does it more compellingly, as opposed to Jurassic’s heavy reliance on a highly enthusiastic, but somewhat uninteresting Dinosaur George.

Too much George, not enough Dinosaur.

Too much George, not enough Dinosaur.

By making it into a competition between the teams trying to prove their fighter’s worth, the show’s clunky weapons simulation scenes become a lot more interesting. You suddenly have a stake in one of the teams being able to convince the judges that they deserve the ‘edge’, because ultimately, that’s what the computer is going to use to determine the outcome of the 1000 simulated fights that decide who wins. It’s like American Idol, but with more stabbing. While nothing’s been mentioned yet, I’m hoping that there will be some sort of bracket system, where each week’s winner goes on to face the winners of other weeks, ultimately culminating in a big crazy season finale to determine who truly is the Deadliest Warrior, ala Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker Planet.

On its inaugural night, Deadliest Warrior featured a Roman Gladiator facing off against an Apache Warrior, a matchup of a stealthy and merciless guerilla fighter versus a brawny bruiser known for taking and giving out punishment.

Both teams tried to sway the judges by bringing up their warriors ‘mindsets; the Gladiator team insisted that their combatant would not back down and simply batter his opponent to bits, and that the Apache would prefer to hit and run, but would not be able to in the arena; whereas the Apache team maintained that the Gladiator would be too slow and bulky, and his armor would restrict him from even seeing the swifter Apache approaching.

Both weapon sets turned out to be terrifyingly effective- even an innocuous sling bullet proved perfectly capable of staving in a human skull, but the Apache team had an ace in the hole that the Gladiator could not counter effectively enough- the bow and arrow. (Notice how laid back Alan Tafoya is as he demonstrates the bow’s effectiveness- as if he already knows that he’s won.)

Being able to reliably kill his opponent at a range of just under 50 feet without suffering harm led the Apache to win two-thirds of the simulated combats, at least according to the judges, and this will likely prove to be the downfall of most, if not all, of the fighters in the weeks to come. The judges took this aspect of an otherwise fairly well-balanced matchup, and let it tip the scales violently in favor of the Apache.

In a strict hand-to-hand contest, the Gladiator would have won, in my book, although the crafty Apache could have likely gotten around his shield and cut up his super-exposed chest a bit, much to the pleasure of the crowd. As it was already noted in the messageboard on SpikeTV’s site, the Gladiator’s cestus had shockingly little effect on the Apache’s face, despite its cow-maiming properties proven in the lab. The Gladiator should have won at that point, but it seems that the writers left that sequence in to make it more visually interesting. The full episode is online here- you can decide for yourself: http://www.spike.com/full-episode/apache-vs-gladiator/31444

Next week’s confrontation is Ninja vs. Spartan:

This looks like another bad matchup of stealth versus strength. Take away the anime-style powers that real ninjas never had, and it seems to get worse. Perhaps the ninja will surprise us, but the Spartan seems to have more armor and a bigger shield than the Gladiator did, and I’m betting that the Spartan team will play up the shield-wall tactic.

Other fights for this season include Taliban vs. IRA, Yakuza vs. Mafia, Green Beret vs. Spetznaz, Maori vs. Shaolin Monks, and a few fights that I’m actually interested in:

Viking vs. Samurai’ This can’t end well for anyone. But it’ll probably be fun to watch. Either the Samurai knocks the Viking down with the one sword stroke that they are famous for, or the Viking goes berserk and lays into him with an axe.
Pirate vs. Knight’ Does the pirate have a pistol? If so, based solely on the severe advantage that the bow gave the Apache, the Pirate wins. I’m rooting for the Knight, though.
William Wallace vs. Shaka Zulu’ This sounds ridiculous, and not necessarily in a bad way. However, since Wallace is known for shooting lightning bolts from his arse, I think that Zulu will not have much of a chance in this matchup.

On the whole, Deadliest Warrior is an entertaining bit of late-night TV. Probably not worth staying up for, but if you can DVR it, it’s a good way to spend an afternoon.

Violently yours,
-Sketch

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April 8, 2009 | 2 Comments

Still Seeking.

Some day, I will master the fine art of word wrapping. but not in this post. A little over two weeks ago, The Legend of the Seeker, a television series based on the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, made its 2-hour TV debut.

If you’ve read Mr. Goodkind’s work, you were probably quite excited about the prospect of the series becoming a television show- the books’ subtleties would not have translated well in a hour-and-a-half of film. On the other hand, an entire season or two of TV, even with television’s needs for decency and tame violence, should be enough time to get the point across. It might even have had a certain element of confusion as to what exactly is going on and why, like Lost or other long story arc-based shows like to do.

However, if you haven’t read any of the Sword of Truth series, you might enjoy this show more than I did. It’s a very generic, but otherwise unremarkable fantasy story, with a lot of the basic elements that made it noteworthy as a book stripped away (or at best hidden quite well) in the first episode. As you might have guessed by now, I had high hopes for this show, and I haven’t even read all the books. Realizing that it was put together by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert (the people behind Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, not to mention Jack of All Trades and some comic book movie about a guy in a red-and-blue jumpsuit) as I watched the opening credits only pushed them higher.

Then the show actually started. It’s got a Xena/Hercules-y feel to it, which makes sense as it was also filmed in the lush landscapes of New Zealand.

Kind of like this.

The show drops us right into the action, with a pair of women (one of which we later find to be the heroine, Kahlan, being chased by a quad, a specialized group of warriors who work in a group of fou- I mean, six armored) men. One armored guy goes down to a dagger thrown in ‘bullet time’,then another of them scores a critical hit with a longbow on one of the women (appropriately the one dressed in black, while Kahlan is dressed in white).

Awww yeah... Natural 20. Sweet.

She then tumbles off the horse, down a slight slope and lives just long enough to hand off the MacGuffin, I mean, the Book of Counted Shadows, while the bowmen sort of wait for the exposition to end. Maybe they ran out of arrows. Maybe.

"Hey, guys? I'm pretty sure I can hit them from here... Guys? Guys?"

The story stumbles along from there, placing Richard Cypher, Hero of Hope (according to the promotional materials, anyhow,) in the role of Ordinary Medieval Joe; a common woodsman who suddenly finds himself in over his head with all this magic stuff.

He's just building a bridge. Seriously. No one of import even crosses this bridge in the whole episode.

He is forced to trust the local crazy man and a woman who won’t even acknowledge that he helped save her life until forced to, and probably only with the intention of converting him to her cause. Add to that the fact that the same man who Richard (with Kahlan’s help) had apparently killed a few scenes ago comes back and kills his father, and you have pretty much every fantasy clich ever lumped together. These three strangers, Wizard, Warrior (or Paladin, depending on your view) must work together, however unwillingly, to get the MacGuffin from back the henchman of the Big Bad Evil Guy.

The Face of Evil. And probably the plot hook for the next half season or so.

Most of the more interesting character interactions have been taken away to heighten the confusion and perhaps create a sense of epic fantasy, but that’s not the point of this story. Legend of the Seeker seems written like any other ‘coming-of-age’ story, but that’s not at all what it’s about. In the book Wizard’s First Rule, Richard is a smart and savvy character, and pretty much is an adventurer in his own right. The quad, like I mentioned earlier, works together as a well-trained unit, not a bunch of goofs with matching armor attacking unarmed women (however magical) one at a time with awkward, easily dodged sword thrusts.

Perhaps most vexing of all to me is the relationship between the characters, or the lack thereof. As the two of them are very friendly in the book, the realization that Zedd has been a wizard all this time is actually more shocking than the ‘crazy old guy at the edge of the village’ being one- that guy is ALWAYS a wizard.

There was a much worse scene where he is naked in the moonlight holding a chicken over his privates. Apparently ABC has prevented this image from making its way to the Internets, because I couldn't find it for the life of me. But still, would YOU trust this man?

Richard and Kahlan will grudgingly and awkwardly fall in love, since neither of them especially likes the other; as opposed to the more believable ‘friends first’ approach that they took in the book.

Don't trust her Richard, she's a witch! And the Chicken Man is a wizard!

It really just seems like they decided to push the audience into the middle of the action instead of building something and then altering it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but the execution, even if you were to ignore the omitted canonical details that could have been preserved, causes it to fail at what might otherwise have been an entirely new take on the genre as presented on television.

While doing research for this post, I came across this letter to the fandom by Terry Goodkind himself. I was unaware that Disney was the force behind the show. It explains some, but not all of the failings of the show, as Mr. Goodkind was ‘intimately involved’ in the writing, but I still think that there is some explaining that needs to be done. Read and judge for yourself.

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November 13, 2008 | No Comments

Three Methods of writing Sci-Fi.

Three Methods of writing Sci-Fi has emerged on television.

Method 1

This first method is the most common, and has been used since the beginning of television. In this method each episode of a show had a beginning, middle and end with very little or no connection to the next or previous episode. Star Trek, Star Trek the Next Generation and The Twilight Zone series are examples. This is also the way most sit-coms and cartoons are written. The positive to this is you can miss an episode and it will not effect your viewing of the show in the weeks to come. The negative is there is very little character growth and development the characters will react in a similar manner each time. This method made sense before the invention of the VCR, DVR and Internet. Now that television is a part of our daily lives we expect more from our commitment.

Method 2

This method involves shows that have an over arching or larger storyline through out the season. For the most part each episode has nothing to do with that larger storyline or the next and previous episode. Examples of this is The X-Files, Stargate SG -1, Smallville and most recently Fringe. Each episode of the season has very little to do with the next episode. The episodes have a beginning, middle, and end. Each episode might have some cookie crumbs of the larger storyline sprinkled in it. For the most part there is very little character growth until there is a change to the larger storyline.

Because the larger storyline has a beginning, middle and end. There are usually only six episode that count. The first episode, four mid season episodes and the very last episode which will always end the over arching storyline and begin a new storyline that ends in a cliffhanger. Unless the over arching storyline is all part of A larger picture like it is in the X-files. With these type of shows they try to keep a big mystery going, always hinting at it but never giving it to you.

I do not enjoy this method of storytelling, it always seems to drag the viewer along each time looking for the cookie crumbs and hoping there is some character growth. There never seems to be any character growth. They also never seem to solve the larger storyline.

Method 3

This third method is my favorite. We are moving to the season long storyline where each episode has everything to do with past and future episodes. This method is not new to television it has been around in daytime television since the birth of the soap opera. Every episode counts and is involved in the growth of the character. You can see this style of storytelling in shows like Heroes, Lost and the new Battlestar Galactica.

This method would not work as well without the Internet. You need to catch each episode before you see the next episode. It is probably why it only existed in daytime television. I find myself more attracted to these shows because I enjoy a good story. It’s probably because growing up, I was an avid comic-book reader. I have the patience to wait for the next episode. I also have the dedication to show up for every episode. If I miss an episode I can be comforted that I can always catch it online.  This method spawns conversation around the water cooler. The thirty second attention span that our nation has, might end this method of story telling. We also do not like change, so when characters grow on these shows sometimes they become bad guys and sometimes the bad guys become good guys. You have to pay attention to the nuance of what each character is going through. It makes for stronger writing and multi dimensional characters.

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October 14, 2008 | No Comments

Heroes is “Hot Hot Hot”

Heroes threw some of the dark side into the start of season 3. I almost do not want to spoil anything. I will try not to.

Heroes has become my favorite show. For three reasons. One: it is the only prime time show that has brought the hero comic book writing style to the TV screen without the crap that always gets associated with comics (costumes). Two: It takes bits and pieces of comic book, sci-fi and fantasy throws it in a big pot and out comes a succulent tasty show. Three: It is character based, the story moves according to a characters actions.

Most shows the characters barely change or grow. In Heroes the characters have no choice but to grow. Their growth is what moves the story and what influences the outcome. That’s what I enjoy most about the show. Humans are impulsive and sometimes commit desperate acts. When you have super powers and commit these acts of desperation, they could and will have dire consequences. Heroes takes a stab at exploring these situations. I do not want to spoil anything so I will keep this blog a little short and recommend every watch this season of Heroes. It has started out really good and I can tell just from the first two episodes it is going to be fast paced with lots of adventure.

To learn more about Heroes I suggest checking these sites out.
Heroes Wiki : http://heroeswiki.com/Main_Page

NBC’s Heroes home Page : http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/ (You can watch the Episodes and read the comics.)

Thanks

Sean “Sapo” Pisano

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September 23, 2008 | No Comments

Hello my name is Sapo and I am comic books junkie.

Yes I am a comic book junkie. Not the kind of junkie that needs that quick cheap fix. I need the good stuff. You can’t just throw together a comic and have it work for types like me. First the story has to be rock solid. If it’s a character that has been around for awhile you can’t just make him do something that does not make sense with his history. So as a comic book junkie (A conkie, my name for it.) and a love of all things celluloid, I feel the need to see every superhero movie that comes out. I have to say being the comic book snob that I am. I have not been impressed.

Until now…. Iron Man. I went in totally jaded; all I can think was man this is going to be another Spidermen 3.

I am now impressed. I liked this movie. I liked it allot. It was pure comic book. Not once did I feel like they were trying to explain anything to me. The special effects did not overwhelm the movie but enhanced it. I brought it hook line and sinker. I think the movie also worked for people who never read Iron Man. It was a fantastic lesson on how to do a comic book movie the right way. So I again say keep your Hollywood out of my comic books.

Go see the Iron Man movie encourage the powers that be to continue to make movies that reflect what the fans love about the comics they read.

Next Blog… Really bad comic book movie projects to check out. Hint Hint David Hasselhoff as Nick Fury…..

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May 12, 2008 | No Comments

Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!

I must say I am addicted to Heroes. This is by far the best interpretation of comics to film I have seen so far. Like all TV it drags on and on. Waiting a week to see the next episode is a week too long. Course for some reason, TV likes to put everything on hold from December to late January. Then things start where they left off. I hate this. This is why I do not watch too much television. I have been known to wait till the show is on DVD and watch the show at my leisure. Of course I rent the DVD’s from Netflix. It makes life so simple. Not having to stop what your doing, just to watch TV never makes sense.

Back to Heroes. What a show, they leave enough for you to take a guess but not enough to figure it out. It is a bit on the slow side, and I would love for it to have more action. As it is the story is very character centric. The character move the story, unlike most stories not one character dominate the story fully. I think that is what keeps my attention. In most TV and Film one character dominates and moves the story. This story depends on a group of very diverse character to move the story, it seems to be working.

I hope to see more. I hope you will want to see more. The next month in a half there seems to be repeats coming, so it is your chance to catch the show from the beginning. Watch the show decided for yourself.

Peace

Sapo

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December 5, 2006 | No Comments

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