The geeks shall inherit the earth

…or at least, inherit just San Diego, for about a week. I haven’t blogged about a lot of things in a while, so to start with, let me just talk about Comic-Con. Yes, part of the reason I haven’t been blogging is because July was packed with a ton of exciting (and not so exciting) events – like the biggest geek-out fest of every year, San Diego Comic-Con International, held on July 22-26. I went to all four days, but I got into an accident on July 23rd, and well, it sort of ruined the rest of my Comic-Con experience. Anyway, I’m going to skip that part because I don’t really feel like going into the gory details, but let me start with the previews of shows I saw at the Con.

Let me start with the new ABC show V, which premieres this fall. The show is a remake of the 1984 TV series of the same name, which in summary is pretty much just about an alien invasion, the human resistance, etc. The show stars Firefly’s Morena Baccarin, Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell, Party of Five’s Scott Wolf and The 4400’s Joel Gretsch. I watched the pilot, and although there were some interesting parts (such as an appearance by Firefly’s Alan Tudyk), I felt like the show didn’t really bring anything new or interesting to the table. Morena Baccarin plays Anna, the leader of the “aliens” who are called “visitors” (hence the title ‘V’), while Elizabeth Mitchell plays FBI officer Erica Evans, who is trying to find out the truth about the visitors. The pilot jumped into the thick of it right away, and didn’t really spend any time introducing the characters. Actually, it starts right when the aliens invade (or more like, park their mothership on top of NYC) and you just have to sympathize for the characters from there. I felt like they could’ve done a much better job. For those of us who weren’t familiar with the 1984 series, a little build-up would probably have helped. It just seemed rushed and so it became tough to sympathize with characters who were strangers to you as the viewer. I’m going to give this show a chance, since I love Elizabeth Mitchell and of course, duh, there’s Morena Baccarin, but I don’t really see this show taking off. It’s nice to see Scott Wolf back in business, though.

Another new show which premieres this fall is The Vampire Diaries. Now, I’m not really qualified to talk about this because I left about 5 minutes after the pilot was shown (it was that bad), but I feel like speaking out about it. Dear Hollywood, enough with the fucking vampires. Seriously. What is this sudden fascination with vampires? And don’t even get me started about Twilight, because it’s nothing special. But let’s not get into a full-blown rant on Twilight, because I’ve reserved that for my next post (mwahahaha!). The Vampire Diaries is pretty much Twilight on TV. The only reason I stayed to watch the first few minutes of it was because I knew Ian Somerhalder [who played Boone on Lost] was going to be in it. Alas, Ian Somerhalder did not appear in those first 5 minutes I stayed. The bottom line: it [The Vampire Diaries] is nothing but teenage sap, akin to 90210. I’m sure the Twihards will love it.

On to the only vampires I can tolerate in HBO’s True Blood panel. This show kept me sane throughout this sweltering summer. I was committed to getting into this panel, so I waited in line for about 2 hours. No pain, no gain, right? Anyway, the panel consisted of Stephen Moyer (Bill), Ana Paquin (Sookie), Alan Ball (creator), Charlaine Harris (writer of the books), Rutina Wesley (Tara), Michelle Forbes (Mary Ann), Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette), Sam Trammell (Sam), Deborah Ann Woll (Jessica) and Alexander Skarsgard (Eric). Two people were clear standouts on this panel; Alexander and Nelsan, whose characters seemed to be the most well-received (and for good reason). Alexander was a clear favorite – he drew applause and shrieks from female hordes left and right. Poor Stephen Moyer, who plays vampire Bill Compton and Sookie’s lover, had to endure numerous questions about when Eric and Sookie would finally hook up. Alan Ball was the life of the panel; he has been known to be witty and engaging at these things and he defintiely proved that point at the panel. Michelle Forbes came off as a tad full of herself. She’s a tremendous actress, but she just had this haughty look on her face during the entire panel and didn’t seem quite that interested in what the fans had to ask her. What I learned from the panel was that Evan Rachel Wood was going to be joining the TB gang as the Vampire Queen. Should make for a fun season.

The Lost panel was one of the most fun panels I’ve ever been to. They [the powers that be, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) always know how to put on an excellent show, and since it was the last hurrah (Lost’s final season returns in January of 2010), it made sense that they closed the season with a bang. The panel started off with Damon and Carlton taking questions from the fans, when all of a sudden Jorge Garcia (Hurley) shows up at the microphone with questions, much to the delight and surprise of the entire fanbase at Hall H. Shortly thereafter, Michael Emerson (Ben) shows up, to an eruption of cheers from the audience. Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert) filmed this hilarious short making fun of his eyelashes/eyeliner and also showed up at the panel. And then, for the ultimate surprise that pretty much drew the most applause, Josh Holloway showed up, causing a downright riot in Hall H. After a montage of fallen Lost characters that ended with the most heart-wrenching “death” of the series, Charlie Pace’s demise, voila! Dominic Monaghan appeared onstage. It truly was a fun experience, and what I learned from the panel was essentially something I had expected, which is that season 6 will be sort of a “reset” season. According to Darlton, season 6 will be very similar to season 1, and I read that clue as that the stories of the characters would reset back to that of season 1. Kate as a fugitive, Jack having issues with his father, Charlie still on drugs, etc. except the difference  is perhaps in the details. For instance, it is revealed (through an America’s Most Wanted video) that in season 6, Kate, instead of running from the authorities after murdering her father, actually murders the wrong guy. So that’s a storyline we can wait to see unfold. Overall, the Lost panel was a real success and everyone came out of that amped and excited for the new season.

Other panels I went to: Sherlock Holmes from Warner Bros., which was a blast. Robert Downey Jr. commanded the room with such presence, and it was apparent he took his cue from the success of Iron Man during last year’s Comic-Con. Rachel McAdams and Joel Silver were present as well. The Disney panel was also fabulous. They premiered clips from the still unfinished new Disney movie The Princess and the Frog, which is the first time we’ve seen hand-drawn animation in a few years since the advent of 3D and Pixar. A surprise guest at the Disney panel was the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. I was so overwhelmed with surprise when I found out he was making an appearance. The crowd at Hall H was at its feet to welcome one of animation’s biggest icons, the man behind My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, etc.

Although I did feel that there was something a bit lacking at Comic-Con this year, I still thought it was a lot of fun. I would have liked to have been able to see James Cameron’s Avatar panel, but alas, one can only wait in line under the San Diego sun for so long. I will post pictures when I get the chance.

Stuff I’m listening to right now

1. MGMT – Weekend Wars
2. SANTOGOLD – L.E.S. Artistes
3. TV on the RADIO – Love Dog
4. OF MONTREAL – The Past is a Grotesque Animal
5. THE WRENS - I’ve Made Enough Friends
6. THIS DANCEFLOOR! – Night Walking
7. THE PANICS - Don’t Fight It

Kris Allen, because of you I have carpal tunnel

I had never before voted for anyone on American Idol…until Kris Allen. I’ve always considered it a crappy show geared for the Celine Dion wannabes and the occasional aspiring Michael Boltons and never really thought an overproduced show like it could discover any form of talent. I tuned in last year when David Cook won, and I was pleased, mostly because David Cook just didn’t resemble the typical American Idol winner and so I had placed my bet on David Archuleta. When Cook won, I was happy because it showed that America, despite the judges’ pushing and shoving for a clear favorite (Archuleta) decided they wanted to hear someone else on the radio as their American Idol.

This year, I watched AI not expecting anything, and was immediately drawn to Kris Allen. Honestly, I did think he was cute when he sang “Man in the Mirror”, but I also thought Adam Lambert was cute, so there. What I am trying to say is that cute can only get so far. Talent gets you further. And this season of American Idol was pretty good in terms of talent. Matt Giraud and Allison Iraheta were my early favorites, but during the top 13 they seemed to falter sometimes and weren’t consistent. Kris Allen and Adam Lambert seemed like the only two performers who knew exactly who they were and what music they wanted to do. I had willed the finale to be between them because it would really be a showdown. But alas, the AI machine had other plans. They wanted a Lambert-Danny Gokey finale, just to showcase a storyline of good versus evil. Well, too bad, but Danny Gokey went home, and good riddance or it would have been a pretty pathetic finale. But the producers still tried to go with the same storyline – playing up Allen’s boy-next-door qualities and red state origins and emphasizing Lambert’s flamboyance and affinity for fog machines and guyliner.

Tonight was part one of the season 8 finale, and it was sort of a major letdown primarily because the coronation song, written by judge Kara DioGuardi, was pure and absolute drivel that it was simply unsingable. I don’t care if you are David Bowie or Mariah Carey – “No Boundaries” is an awful song. It had a cheesy melody, strange lyrics, and frankly, it wasn’t epic enough to be a coronation song. My 9-year-old sister could write better lyrics than that. But let’s start from the beginning.

Adam Lambert started off the show with “Mad World”, a repeat performance of his that was so good, the normally belligerent Simon Cowell rose to his feet and gave Lambert a standing ovation. Lambert was much more subdued in this finale performance, and I liked that he didn’t attempt to shriek out his high notes as he normally does. I liked the performance – it was pretty haunting, with the dry ice and silvery blue lights. It didn’t blow me away, but it was still decent. Kris Allen picked “Ain’t No Sunshine” as his repeat performance – a song that I had loved when he performed it during Motown week. To me, his second rendition of it seemed a bit strained; he wasn’t hitting the same notes he did when he performed it the first time, and he had more fire in his voice the first time around. Allen appeared like he was exhausted – maybe he was saving his voice for later, who knows? It was still a good performance, and I like that he switched up the arrangement a little bit from the original performance he did.

The second round was AI creator Simon Fuller’s picks. Lambert got “A Change is Gonna Come”, a classic Sam Cooke song which has been sung to death during Idol auditions. It was an interesting pick for Lambert, and probably a metaphorical one too. He started off pretty well, remarkably subdued and classic – and then came the high notes and the performance went downhill from there. Normally for a song you have a beginning, middle, bridge and then the end. For Lambert it was a beginning and a bridge. Lambert doesn’t know how to reign in his voice. He just unleashes it during the high notes and really pretty much butchered the song. I couldn’t stand listening to it – had to put it on mute. Too bad, as he had started off pretty well with that song.

Kris Allen was given “What’s Going On”, another classic song from the great Marvin Gaye. I was nervous at first, because the song is very bluesy, R&B-ish and Motown, but I rememered that Kris can pretty much take on songs that aren’t typically his genre [see: Heartless] and when the song started, he was barely into the first verse and already I wanted to do cartwheels. His rendition of “What’s Going On” was phenomenal. It wasn’t as exciting as “Heartless”, but it was pretty close. It was an almost bossa nova/Latin salsa version of “What’s Going On” and I am telling you, I love this song to death, and I almost wanted to cry because of how much justice Kris brought to singing it. It was the best performance of the night, primarily because it was the most original, and he had made the song fresh. I can’t wait to download it on iTunes tomorrow!

And now we come to the coronation song, “No Boundaries”. I won’t even dignify it with a review, except I thought Adam Lambert made it sound so dated – like a horrible 80s song. Kris, on the other hand, made it a bit contemporary, but the notes were far too high for him, and he was really straining himself in order to hit those notes. Luckily for him, the timbre of his voice allows him to sound relevant and not like he was stuck in the 80s like Lambert was. Though I can say that both of them sang the song poorly, mostly because it was a horribly-written song to begin with, I thought Kris did a much better, albeit more bearable version than Lambert.

So with all that in mind, I decided to text my fingers off for Kris tonight. It was absolutely exhausting having to do that for four hours straight, but I did it. I worked three cellphones and I think I may have pulled 2000 votes or something. It was crazy. Whatever happens tomorrow night, Kris Allen has a bright future ahead of him, because he is a very relevant, record-ready artist who knows exactly what he wants to put out as a record. I hope he wins, because he deserves it, after all the hard work he has put into his performances and how he has dealt with the AI machine, even after they preordained their winner 13 contestants beforehand. No matter what happens, Kris Allen is my American Idol – and the first and last finalist on that horrible show that I ever vote for.

How to destroy a comic book movie

Pretty badass poster, right? I judged the movie by its poster, to my detriment.

I feel like a complete fool having ever been convinced that Marvel would be able to churn out another faithful and enjoyable comic book movie with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. I mean, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t see it coming. When Hugh Jackman was the surprise guest at Comic-Con 2008, having flown all the way from Australia just to show a roomful of geeks footage of his new Wolverine flick, I was ecstatic. I thought, here we’d finally get a decent Sabretooth story (and the Liev Schreiber casting was pretty clever, and probably the only good decision made in this movie), and then we’d finally be able to see one of the most beloved comic book characters of all time, Gambit a.k.a. Remy LeBeau.

I was in the theater watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and I felt like I was going to have a seizure. Not only was it packed with sentimental fluff, but the little action that was in the movie was just choreographed bullshit. The film attempted to tell Wolverine’s origin story, but it failed from the get-go. It wasn’t faithful to the actual comic book story, and they took tremendous liberties with the characters that should be considered a crime. The movie got a C+ from most critics, but I feel like that is way too generous for a movie failure of epic proportions.

The first ten minutes of Origins was cool. Flashy superhero antics featuring the always delightful Deadpool [played by Ryan Reynolds], slo-mo history scenes of Jimmy/Logan growing up with Victor and both of them going off to fight wars. It was all good for the first ten minutes. I even like Danny Huston as a young William Stryker. But then they went into the romance story between Silverfox and Wolverine, and it only went downhill from there. Not only was the romance poorly constructed, the audience didn’t really have enough time to empathize with their relationship. The two characters just appeared to be thrust at each other and the audience was just supposed to accept it as an epic love story. And then the mindless killing starts when ex-members of the unit Stryker led in Africa start getting murdered. There really is no reason for this, and it’s funny how the movie barrels along regardless of how lame the plot is.

Liev Schreiber was the only convincing person in the movie. He played his role very well, and he was the best Sabretooth that we comic book fans would probably ever have. Unfortunately, a good actor can only do so much with poor direction and a horrible script. Schreiber’s great acting wasn’t enough to hold up the entire film. Hugh Jackman, as per usual, was charming and extremely hot without his shirt on (and at one point, actually buck naked, but I think that may have been a body double – ah well, a girl can dream), but alas, he wasn’t any good either. Yes, we’ve gotten used to him living in Wolverine’s skin for what – four years now? So he is Wolverine. The problem is, there was no depth to his character. He seemed like a bumbling bonehead, and even though the revenge angle was pseudo-workable, the writing was just absolutely terrible.

I was actually excited to finally see Dominic Monaghan doing something after his character, Charlie, got killed off on Lost, and when I heard he was going to be in Origins, I was enthused. Sadly, though, Monaghan was probably in the movie for a total of 5 minutes. It was actually kind of pathetic. Monaghan had stated in an interview right before he left Lost that he wanted to do other things, and he was thankful to Lost for getting his face out there and giving him exposure, but now he had wanted to do more than that and do movies, etc. Little did we know that he was only good enough for something like a five minute cameo of a character who has absolutely no endearing qualities and a pretty stupid way of activating his powers, actually.

Which brings me to Gambit. Gambit was the most anticipated appearance in the entire movie. I had heard that Taylor Kitsch [Friday Night Lights] was picked to play the part, and this was cool because he definitely looks the part of the flirtatious Cajun bad boy. However, Kitsch’s Gambit was lukewarm, clumsy and unimportant. The movie could have gone on without him, and frankly, the only reason I can think of why Gambit was inserted into the movie was for show. He wasn’t relevant; the scenes he was in were terrible and ridiculously shot. The fight scenes were abysmal. So in short: the long-awaited premiere of Gambit was a major let-down.

Ryan Reynolds, who played Deadpool, was one of the best in the movie, but alas, the way the writers completely butchered his character is beyond forgivable. Deadpool is one of the most endearing charactes in comic book history, mostly because of his talkative nature and his skill with weapons. They were able to demonstrate these endearing qualities early on in the movie, which pretty much constituted those ten minutes of bearable fluff I was talking about in the beginning of the film. However, the movie eventually reveals that Stryker was working on a program called Weapon XI (don’t even get me started on that one) and that he had made Deadpool the new Weapon XI – a super mutant with powers from different characters. They even brought in a young Scott Summers to take his powers! I’m telling you, what the writers did to Deadpool was absolutely fucked up. Quite possibly the most fucked up thing you could do to a comic book character, actually, which is why it can only boggle the mind why the hell Marvel would ever give their blessing for something as absurd as Deadpool being a supermutant who can have his head hacked off and yet survive.

I bet you Bryan Singer is as pissed off as I am. Anyway, X-Men Origins was a complete waste of time and money. The acting was so horribly cheesy, almost bordering on telenovella-esque, and the writing was downright abusive towards the characters. There was really nothing good about this movie at all, except for a few naked Hugh Jackman scenes that particularly interested those in the audience who were of the female persuasion. I give this movie an F. I would never see it again. Why? I’m not a masochist.

Swedes are creepy

I remember when I watched Let the Right One In. I was sitting in front of my computer and I had a pillow in front of me, for when it gets really creepy and I can use it for cover. Let the Right One In was an interesting film. And no, by ‘interesting’, I don’t mean bad. It wasn’t exactly awesome, but it was surprisingly simple and melancholic. It was a bit gory in parts, but it wasn’t in-your-face Hostel-gross. Once the movie started, I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I don’t know what it is about vampires or monsters or whatever that are represented by foreign films. They just seem way scarier. The vampires in 30 Days of Night were frightening, and they were speaking a fictional language developed by a Linguistics professor to convey primal ideas.

Anyway, back to Let the Right One In. The film turned out to be less scary than I had expected it to be. It was rather sentimental (and this isn’t a negative thing) and focused, which was surprising. You don’t really expect a lot of horror movies to have that sort of approach. The plot was interesting, but it could have used more meat to fill in the story. I would recommend it to those who appreciate foreign films as well as scary films. This movie excelled in establishing a haunting atmosphere – one which a lot of American horror movies are lacking in. Overall, you come away from the movie with a sense of melancholy, and a greater appreciation for Swedes – because they can be extra creepy if they want to.