The Shark: May 2006 Archives

I am going to entrust the more detailed, lengthy reviews to Michael and Chris, but I wanted to throw in two quick things:

1) Ratner and the writers had to go into production of their script realizing that they were going to make a lot of enemies. I, for one, really admire the VERY daring steps they took and despite the shock I thought the movie was good. I agree with Chris that the plot and character development needed more time and that the movie's subtlety of its message was all but gone. An extra thirty minutes of footage (coupled with good writing, of course) could have fixed this.

2) WHATEVER YOU DO: STAY IN YOUR SEAT UNTIL AFTER THE CREDITS ARE OVER. There is a scene there that is VERY important!!

Gosh... in writing that, I've realized that there's so much more I want to comment on but there would be spoilers with it. Perhaps tomorrow I will touch on some of these.

But yeah... wow.

The new "Superman Returns" trailer has succeeded in getting me better-hyped than the last one has. I mean, seeing Supes tear the wing off a plane is pretty dang cool, but something about the pacing of the trailer threw me off.

But this one is great. And the very last part is amazingly done. Go check it out!

For those of you who don't know much about me, which is probably a large number of readers, I got back three years ago from having served a two-year, volunteer mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, during which time I was sent to Dallas, Texas to spend my time teaching the Hispanic population about my religion and helping them find a connection with God. It was a great experience in which I grew up a lot, got to know a lot of neat people and cultures (including some GREAT food!), and I walked away speaking fluent Spanish, which is always a plus.

One of the stipulations of being a missionary for my church, however, is that for the two years served you have to abandon several habits that would serve only as distractions during the time of service, such as dating, television, movies, etc ... and yes, even comic books. I guess you could say it's sort of like being a jedi, but without the light sabers, mind tricks, or risk of being manipulated by an old, disfigured guy in a black robe.

So that's basically how I lost the habit of comic reading. I got home from the mission and managed to round up all the JLA comics I'd missed, and ended up being thoroughly disgusted by how the series had turned out over all that time. It took me a whie longer to get caught up on "The Flash," though, which was the other series that I avidly read as a pre-missionary...

...but I finally did. And I posted my review of the last five years of Flash comics (with an emphasis on the last year) on the forum for all to enjoy. Let me know what you think!