Big Blue Arndt: May 2006 Archives

This is a line of thought I was on before I saw the movie and I had probably last week and last year.

You know that the creative direction and vision has to have been changed to some extent. Either there was an abrubt turn in the track of the movie or Bryan Singer was not all he was cracked up to.

The first X-Men movie was about Wolverine joining the X-Men. That was essentially it.

X-Men 2 was about Wolverine's origin, background, how he came to be, and it essentially went full cirlce back to the X-Men, but when we saw Wolverine leaving the group after his first adventure at the end of the first movie this movie follows right on its heels and for however long Wolverine is gone on this trip, we see him return to the group here. It is his second adventure and it digs further into his character and into the background of the X-Men's relationship with the government, as well.

X-Men 3 is the Last Stand. It's titled The Last Stand.

The first two movies are glorified origin stories. After precisely no build-up we hop from the origins, quick as they were and mostly neccessary and then it's the Last, the end.

Essentially the studio is saying, "we have introduced you to our world, and now we are done."

Go back and read the spoiler-free review and I promise you the spoiler-filled review within 36 hours; what are the odds that I go on a date on Friday night?

I will post a review that is filled with spoilers, gives away the beginning, middle, and the end, and I have no problem cracking open the movie to the curious, because if they are surprised or not the quality of the film or its entertainment value does not change. I went to the midnight show in part because I can. I went because as a member of my community I had a duty to assemble, organize, and lead a squadron of disorganized, relatively undisciplined young folk to the movie theatre to see a midnight show. I went to scoop Michael Hutchison, who lives in the Central TIme Zone and thus had no hope of beating me to the punch. That last sentence is a joke; I am not competing with Hutch. I am familiar with the X-Men and nearly all the stories. I got nearly every in-joke; there were not many.

Let's approach this in a short, relevent manner. I liked the movie. I enjoyed seeing the movie. I was entertained. It was fun I didn't like it very much. It's not a good movie.

All the other reviews are correct. This film has a shorter run-time than the previous two movies yet is packed with much more plot and many more subplots and the film suffers for it. The pacing is cracked, the character development zips along had an obscene speed and there is a significant lack of focus. What is worse is that this moive has all the subtlety of a brick being hurled through your window.

The film had some great moments; there are things in this movie that we have wanted to see in an X-Men movie for some time and it is packed in tight within something that doesn't allow space to breathe or really process.

Kelsey Grammar did a great job.

I promised you two reviews and I will deliver. The next is forthcoming.

The Blue Spider is in fact Christopher J. Arndt. He resides and operate in the Lansing area in the midst of Central Michigan. He is a highly-trained political hack and is slightly over-educated for how he spends his time. His grandest desire is to write professionally.

Alias is on at ABC on a "special night and time" running from 9 PM EDT to 11 PM EDT

Fox is running 24 from 8 PM EDT to 10 PM EDT.

I don't know if most PVR services can record two programs at once but if you just rely on your VCR and/or you are indecsive and a fan of both programs then ABC is sticking it to you. That's all there is to it.

There is a schedule overlap with Fox's high ratings program; ABC would not budge Lost for Alias; if you don't normally watch television except for Alias but you surf the web, then this reminder is the last (timely) one you will get.

Video bootleggers, I mean. At the Motor City Comic Con in Novi, MI this last weekend State and local police, as well as investigators from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), conducted raids on dealers' booths and arrested dealers and confiscated illegal materials, which include pallets of videos, DVDs, and quite possibly but accidentily comic books ("long boxes can hold videos, as well as comics").

Imperial Stormtroopers were not amongst the authorties apropriating merchandise. It just looks like it; I think it's a hilarious picture.

The MPAA and RIAA had undercover agents posing as convention-goers and they mostly just fignering the guilty. Not all of the dealers were arrested. There are more images and information at the CBGXtra.com Forums.

I have little sorrow or sympathy for the purveyers of illegal entertainment or those who profit from unauthorized copies. Stealing is stealing. On the other hand, I also feel little guilt for whatever illegal activities and copyright laws I may or may not have violated in the distant past. Besides, without bootleggers I would never have gotten that copy of the original Fantastic Four movie that Roger Corman made.

I have little need to go over the positive or negative philosophies involved in bootleg movies or in punishing bootleggers.

After going through some general immersion on the Great Cthulhu it's time to ask for some input from whatever lawyer-types happen to read Monitor Duty.

The Comic Treadmill's Mag also presented another neat bit. Howard Hallis did a parody of a particular Jack Chick tract. It replaces the decision of "God or the Devil" with one of when should you be eaten by Cthulhu (not if). There was a problem.

I am writing to inform you of a copyright violation occurring on a website hosted by you. The offending website is www.howardhallis.com. The copyright violation exists at the following URL:http://www.howardhallis.com/bis/cthulhuchick/

The person preparing this material has stolen artwork from copyrighted publications created by Jack T. Chick, with the copyright being held in the name of the Jack T Chick LLC. I represent Chick Publications, Inc., the sole licensed publisher of this copyrighted material. Our contract with the Jack T Chick LLC requires us to defend this copyright, and we intend to do so. While more than one of Mr. Chick's copyrighted publications were used to prepare this web page, the majority of the material comes from one of his creations, currently offered for sale on our website. We display this title , "The Choice," on our website where prospective customers may view it before purchasing it in bulk. You may view it here to verify that the material on the offending web page does in fact come from this publication:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0100/0100_01.asp

I hereby certify the following:

1. I am an officer of Chick Publications, Inc., the sole licensed publisher of Mr. Chick's work.

2. This artwork was created by Jack T. Chick and the copyright is held by Jack T Chick LLC.

3. The developer of the website www.howardhallis.com does not havepermission to reproduce Mr. Chick's artwork.

I assume(d) parody is exempt from copyright restrictions. Does Hallis' work sufficiently fit the definition of parody to successfully escape actual legal recourse from Chick Publications, Inc.?

We start with Mag's review of Cthulhu Tales on the Comic Treadmill.

Then skip over to the text of The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft. There you will find the text of Cthulu's first appearance in The Call of Cthulhu, written in 1926.

Neil Gaiman wrote “I Cthulhu,” a long-lost story by Neil Gaiman or What’s A Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing In A Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47 ° 9’ S, Longitude 126 ° 43’ W)? , which may or may not be psuedo-autobiographical, depending on what your particular attachment to reality is.

Have good, unwholesome fun with plush Cthulhu. I tell you that that notion started my love and whimsy with the Great Old One.

What started my knowledge of Cthulu's existence: Dr. Strange and Dr. Fate versus Cthulu!

Henry Akeley writes a short and apparently well-investigated (and sourced) essay on how you pronounce "Cthulhu". Go here to discover how I (quite possibly mistakenly) have pronounced the name for years!

So go have some fun with Great Old One!

Flashback! Bill Mantlo is 27 years old. It is more than a decade before his tragic accident.

Here is Part 1 of the interview.

Here is Part 2 of the interview.

For us comic fans he was one of the greats; to everyone he should be a reminder that we should treasure what time we have left.

John Wayne really is an American Legend.

Tonight at 9 PM EDT your local PBS affiliate will broadcast an episode of American Masters entitled "John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend"

Of course, both Ford and Wayne are American Masters, but the important thing is that depending on where you live, you need to change your channel in seven minutes and get off the internet!

Then come back here. If I fulfill everything I want(ed) to do there should be a review of Mission Impossible 3. I saw it at 10 PM last Thursday.

I wish Rob Ricochet had never shared that site with you or me.

I spent a good deal of yesterday looking at pictures of Wonder Woman tied up, (probably) unintended double entendres, and a lot of propaganda comic book covers (mostly from World War II).

So covering it all.... at SuperDickery.com there are the above sections, entitled Suffering Sapho, Seduction of the Innocent, and Propaganda Extravaganza respectively. There is also, of course, examples of Superman being a jerk on covers. The following I have not been to yet.

George Lucas and Fox will finally release the vintage non-"Special Edition" theatrical versions of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD.

This was after years of Lucas or his underlings insisting that those particular films (which are absent various changes and editings that the late nineties' "Special Editions" or the first DVD releases contain) no longer exist in a form where transfer to and mass production in DVD form is tenable.

I will declare right now that I never believed that Lucas and company didn't save a completed and restored print for the original stuff as it was originally cut... and that they were capable of releasing on DVD format the original editions for some time now, contrary to what Lucas and company kept saying. Anyone who believed Lucas wasn't holding back for future profits was a sucker.

I expect all my nerd friends to back up my testimony.