Geekklesia

In an earlier post I explained my theory of the tripartite composition of man. In short, I believe that people can be explained as being governed by their heads, their hands and their hearts. I believe that this composition is visible in the ensemble cast of Marvel's AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. : Agents Ward and May are the Hands , i.e., they are people of action; they get things done. In episode 2, "0-8-4," Ward even says that he is trained to be the 'solution.' The first two episodes very clearly revel them to be action-oriented.  They do not speak much, but let their deeds do the talking for them.  People of action often act and then consider the consequences afterwards. They  live by the motto "shoot first, ask questions later." Indeed, Agent May appears to be suffering from regret for some (as yet) unspecified action.  Agent Ward is still young and gung-ho, and perhaps we will see May help him reconsider determination to always act first. ...

Note : last night I live blogged the premiere . Now that I've slept on it , I've put together a little more coherent review . Be Warned - there ARE mild spoilers . Okay, so its a day later. I've read some initial responses to the premiere, ranging from "it was awesome," to "it was underwhelming.". I'm falling along the awesome side of the continuum, though not necessarily saying it was perfect. Strong, yes. Perfect, no. What I liked : I loved the way the events of THE AVENGERS were tied in to the opening, establishing a world where superheroes and aliens are now revealed in full. I enjoyed the way Agent Coulson was shown to have somehow survived. Stepping out of the shadows and making a quip about a "bulb out" was perfect. The writing was fun, especially the dialogue. Joss Whedon has a golden ear for the spoken word. The message about character, responsibility and who you are trumping what you have gave me a lo...

Tonight, I'll be live-blogging the premiere! Nice cameos of the Avengers! A hero is a guy running into (or climbing up) a burning building when everyone else is running out... Special guest star Colbie Smulders No wonder this guy gets recruited by Level 7 "We stand between the world and a much weirder world" And there he is! "When you get shanked by the Asgardian Mussolini you can tell it your way." What is the Rising Tide? Ron Glass! He can never know what?  My wife is afraid he might be a LMD.... "With great power comes...a ton of weird crap" That IS a nice bus! And there's Lola! So Skye is "The Rising Tide?" Centipede? Love the drones checking out the lab! Great truth drug! But a hero doesn't kill....(not even Super- oh, wait) So, this centipede device is messing with his moral compass? I'm not liking this origin story. Extremis. Huh. So they're coupling this with IRON MAN 3?  And Extremis is a reverse ...

  Oh, my.  I'm actually giddy with anticipation.  I just received word that a character that I'd considered nigh-legendary in the sub-sub-genre of speculative fiction, that of the Weird Western, has been rebooted.  I speak, of course, of none other than Six-Gun Gorilla . Regular readers of the stuff I throw up on this virtual wall will recall that I have a short list of characters that I would love to see rebooted .  As of now, what I have written about are radio characters, like Chandu the Magician, Rocky Jordan and the lead characters from the Ghost Corps.  I never expected that Six-Gun Gorilla would get a reboot in the form of a comic, because, while I loved the idea, I thought he was such a niche figure that almost no one else would be interested in him.  In my mind, he would remain a lone pioneering figure, back when the idea of the Weird Western had not been fully articulated as it is now. The plot is simple. An old west miner has a pe...

Note : this post will contain major spoilers from THE MAN OF STEEL film . If you haven't seen it yet , feel free to watch it and come back . I'll wait . In the film, Kal-El (not yet called Superman) calls attention to the fact the symbol that looks like a big red "S" to American earthlings is actually the symbol for his family on Krypton, and that it also stands for hope there as well. Throughout the film it seems as if writer David Foyer and director Zack Snyder are going to reinforce this theme: several times in the course of the film (presumably due to the upbringing of his adoptive earth parent's the Kents) he is seen finding a way to save lives.  Indeed, this has been a major refrain of most reviewers that I've heard that it is this stubborn refusal to end a life that marks Superman as an iconic comic book hero. So what happened in the third act? Why was Superman not able to save both the family in the Metropolis train stat...

" OMG Casting Ben Affleck as Batman just set us back another 10 years in our efforts to cure cancer, end poverty and bring peace to the Middle East. OH WAIT IT'S ONLY A MOVIE" - Berin Kinsman, from his Facebook Page (used with permission) Why do we in the geek/nerd community get so bent out of shape abut things like the recent announcement that Ben Affleck has been cast as the new Batman in Zack Snyder's upcoming Batman/Superman film?  People have been bringing up disastrous Affleck films like Gigli , Daredevil and Armageddon . Others have defended the choice citing his recent directorial triumphs like last year's Argo , which won him an Oscar for Best Director. Me? I'm willing to give Ben a chance, although I must admit he was not my first choice. But the question remains: why the vitriol here, when other things are so terribly wrong with the world? To begin, I'm not sure that individuals in the geek/nerd community were not outraged by the...

In a recent article in USAToday , writers Scott Bowles and Andrea Fuller report on the idea that original stories seem to get eaten up by "sequel-itis" and "reboot raves".  To bolster their argument, they bring out an impressive assortment of statistics: Original films accounted for just 39% of box office from 2003 to 2012, down from 65% in the 10 years before. So far this summer, original stories account for just 30% of sales. Original movies accounted for less than half (47%) of the top summer releases from 2003 to 2012, down from 70% the decade before. Pacific Rim  cost the studios $190 million while only earning $94 million as of the publication of the article. They quoted University of Nebraska film professor Wheeler Winston Dixon, who is generally unhappy about the trend: "Films routinely cost $100 to $200 million, and with that kind of money at stake, who has time for originality? It's much safer to bank on a franchise."  On the o...