Green Lantern

Note: This is my first post in a while. If it's a little rusty (read: shitty), please keep that in mind.

I knew from the first trailer that Green Lantern was going to be, from my completely subjective nerd perspective, either the best or the worst thing I'd ever seen. I'd heard all the negative hype but then again I liked Daredevil, so I knew I was the target demographic. Walking into the movie I was (extremely) cautiously optimistic.

Walking out I was underwhelmed, to the point of disappointment. The movie wasn't terrible, it just wasn't very good. In fact it was so very much not very good as to be bad. The performances were decent, and I walked into the theater already sold on the premise and in love with the characters, but I think what did not work boiled down to a couple things:

1. Pacing

The movie seemed designed to specifically undercut any tension or excitement that was building throughout the movie. An action scene would start to ramp up, placing our characters in real danger and then... they fly away and talk about stuff for 5-10 minutes. The all-too short training montage occurs giving us a sense of what the GL corps is about and then... Hal Jordan quits and whines about it for another half hour. Even the final action sequence goes: introduction of the final villain with a fight, fly to the outskirts of the city to watch him and talk about fighting some more, slow-paced scene showing how menaing the villain is, the fight. Why not cut out the fat in the middle? We know Parallax is scary, you spent the entire movie trying to show us that. Every time the movie felt like it was going somewhere, it just stopped dead in its tracks. And don't get me started about starting the movie with 7 minutes of pure exposition.

Despite the movie being two hours long I didn't feel like I got to spend significant time with any characters or that very much got done. I wanted to see more of the Green Lantern Corps. I wanted events to feel like they logically followed one another. I wanted people to do awesome things with their rings to really show the potential of the premise.

None of those things happened. God willing, this makes a ton of money so we can see a sequel that is better-written.

2. Shallow character development

Ryan Reynolds version of Hal Jordan is a bizarre mix of Hal from the comics, who is a self-absorbed brash asshole, and Kyle Rayner, who is more insecure in the Spider-Man "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" Mode. What we get is an "Immature adult, Insecure asshole, so if you fall on the concrete, that's yo ass fault" (Kanye West- See Me Now), whose personality seems totally incongruous. Are you all the asshole who charges in with no regard for others or the guy who is paralyzed by the fear of commitment? Can you be both?

I'm not sure if anyone changed from the beginning to the ending of this movie in any way that made sense. And I'm not sure that I cared about any of the character that I met. Also, given all the time they spent designing the Green Lanterns on OA, I would have liked to spend more time with them. I love Kilowog in the comics. In the movies I can muster apathy at best, mild distaste at worst.

Sinestro, on the other hand was fucking awesome. I want an entire movie about Sinestro. In fact I'm pretty sure thats what Green Lantern 2 would be. Please make this movie. Hector Hammond was also fairly well-done but not given any room to grow beyond his one dimension. It was also unclear if he was supposed to be creepy the entire time, or if his physical transformation was intended to transform his personality as well as his appearance. I believe they were going for the latter, but I didn't feel I got to know his character well enough pre- giant forehead to be sure.

3. Dialogue

Painful. So painful. Geoff Johnsian even. I half expected Kilowog to go "Face it, you're just too Green, Lantern" during the training session.

And the scene where Hal Jordan makes an appeal to the guardians to help earth- GAH! And then (spoiler alert), when they reject him and he begs them to at least let him go and defend his planet- something that they were in no way preventing him from doing prior to his arrival on OA... Come on guys.

4. Show, don't tell

So much talking. So little doing. I don't even know how to expound on this. (The joke is that I'm doing it too)


What did work:

1. Sinestro

I said this earlier, but if this movie was 90% less Hal whining and 180% more Sinestro being badass and a total dick, I would go to see it 3 times in theaters. Also, that scene during the credits? So many nerd-boners.

2. Final Action set piece

(spoilers on)

Most of the final action scene was pretty much crap. In fact, I thought most of the action pieces in this movie were lackluster and boring. But the end, where he was throwing Parallax into the sun (A scene that makes no sense given that this entity is powerful enough to consume entire planet-sized civilizations), was just beautiful. And the image of two jets tied to a belt, pulling him away from Parallax in space struck that perfect balance between silly and awesome. I think my affection for it grows largely out of my unadulterated love for the movie "Sunshine," but it was the first thing in the movie that made me that little kid in me sit up and take notice. Watching Parallax succumb to the Sun's gravitational pull really felt like a win

(spoilers off)

I'll grant you that OA was somewhat cool, but after seeing Asgard done so well in Thor, it really just looked lackluster in comparison.

3. Potential

I honestly believe that there are amazing Green Lantern movies waiting to be made, even if this isn't that movie. If a terrible and racist franchise about cars that transform into giant alien robots and are friends with Even Stevens can be a billion dollar enterprise, surely we can glean some success from intergalactic space cops with alien wishing rings? Green Lantern is one of my favorite characters of all time and there is so much rich history to be mined for future films. This film wasn't good, and that's too bad. But most films that make obscene amounts of money are mediocre at best, so I feel that the lack of quality can almost be viewed as an asset.

If this movie makes tons of money, which I hope to god it does (but looks like it won't), then hopefully we'll start to see studios taking risks on more obscure weirder characters. How amazing would a well-made Blue Beetle/Booster Gold movie be? Or a Thunderbolts movie? Or a 4th world movie?

Actually, leave that last one alone. I couldn't bear to see it fucked up.

My point being, if they could build up enough goodwill with this movie's success, they might be able to bring other relative unknowns to the big screen. As a comics fan, I think that would be awesome.

Art I'm Geeking Out Over

Neill Cameron, who's a pretty amazing artist, does an advent calendar every year where he draws a different type of Santa every day at the request of his readers. It's called SantaSketchFest and it is pretty great! This drawing is of (Jack) Kirby Santa, requested by my favorite internet writer of all time, Chris Sims. For those of you not in the know, Jack Kirby co/created the Fantastic Four, the New Gods, most of modern comics as we know them, etc. The type of forced perspective, elaborate costume and "Kirby Dots" in this piece are some of his trademarks. You can see the rest of Neill Cameron's Santas, most of them non-comics related, here.

As you may have heard, Tron: Legacy is premiering this Friday in theaters around the nation (JK, you definitely know this). This movie was made by Disney, which also owns Marvel. This means Cross-Promotion. Usually this is stupid and lame and it sucks. However, Tron combined with superheroes is so awesome that it overwhelms the cynicism that springs from corporations trying to exploit one type of my nerdery to make money off another type. All of the Marvel/Tron covers can be found here and, with the exception of that ridiculous Spider-Woman one, they are all awesome. Full disclosure: I'm listening to the Tron: Legacy soundtrack as I type this.

This is an amazing picture by Kid Liger of all the Lantern Corps in the DC Universe currently being featured in Brightest Day and the Green Lantern books. If you don't know what this is, you aren't reading Green Lantern. If you aren't reading Green Lantern, the fuck are you doing with your life? (things that are less awesome than they could be). Point being, it's my desktop background and I don't think it's going to change for a while. via Bleeding Cool

Does this need an explanation? Seeing as I know nothing about it where it's from, I sure hope not. Two of my favorite things, together at last. Via my buddy Jack

Random Good Music- 12/5/2010

Music, it's pretty great, right? The only thing is, there's so much of it out there that's great! How can you sift through it all? I haven't found a good way yet.

But my point is I found some pretty great tracks that I thought y'all might like.

1. Did you know that Vampire Weekend's Contra had an iTunes only Bonus Track? I sure didn't. And it's some bullshit, because I totally would have bought it. Oh well, I may be the last one to the party on this but in case I'm not, here it is. Pretty good, right?

2. Robyn is pretty amazing. Have I listened to "Stars 4-Ever" 40+ times in the last 2-3 days? Sorry, that shit is classified. Wikileaks says yes though. The point being, you probably already have that track. BUT do you have the A-Trak remix of Indestructible? Man, I bet you do not! Suck all the joy you can out of this track, because life can be pretty tough sometimes.

3. As some of you might be aware, I like mashups quite a lot. My favorite ones are from The Hood Internet. Yup, better than Girl Talk- I said it! They just dropped a Metric mixtape and while all the tracks are dope as fuck- #5 has been on repeat all damn day. I hope you like it: http://www.thehoodinternet.com/2010/11/hood-vs-metric.html

The Hood Internet x Metric by hoodinternet

4. Deerhunter! That's a band people talk about quite a bit. Until recently, I was not one of those people. Then I heard this remix- now I am! Wow, this sure is good. One of those great tracks where you can dance to it, work to it, exercise to it, or listen to the lyrics and get kind of depressio. All pretty great qualities!

Deerhunter - Helicopter (Diplo & Lunice mix) by maddecent

5. Depressed Buttons- Mixmeat Mixtape. I knew nothing nothing about this group before @hoodinternet recommended their mixtape on the twitters. Now I know nothing about them except that I will be purchasing their EP on Dec. 14th. Damn good.

Depressed Buttons-Mixmeat Mixtape by maddecent

6. Adam Warrock is a rapper I've been talking up to pretty much anyone who will tolerate it. In addition to his excellent full-length album and remix album, he also does a free track-log "sketchbook" where he posts non-album songs in order to keep his creative juices flowing. His new one, "Best Friends (Nedroid)" has been on loop since it came out. It's based on the comic Nedroid(and if you aren't reading this, what is your problem?) and is about the main characters, Reginald and Beartato, having a rap battle about who is a better friend. It manages to be both hilarious and dope at the same. You can listen/download it for free here.

7. Drake- his flow sucks and he's not very good at math (√69=8.306623863 or, I guess, ate something). Sure he's kind of clever, but you know who is more clever? Almost every other rapper I listen to. But, there are DJs who can take these raw components and make something great out of it. In this case by cutting Drake out of the track almost entirely. It's good!

8. Mashups! We covered this already. But check this out- New Kanye vs. Neutral Milk Hotel. Does it work? Would it be on my blog if it didn't? (No, it wouldn't)

In My Beautiful Dark Aeroplane Over The Fantasea by MysteryStain

9. The entire new Kanye album on repeat all day, every day, holy shit it's so good. I'm pretty sure Kanye took lots of sounds he knew I'd like, put them together just for me, and then decided he might as well make millions in the process. Hearing this album is like going back in time to when I was a baby and laughing for the first time. Or conversely, it's like realizing that this is one of the few albums I'm willing to pay the full 15.99 for, even though I'm paying a premium for one itunes exclusive bonus track. Shit, I'd pay double- Kanye deserves it. Have I been effusive enough? Buy this GD album.

Need Inspiration?

You're Welcome.

The Epic Rescue of Princess Ficas

I decided to gather the documentation of me and @fearlessdc's adventure in rescuing a princess that had been lost, using a mystical conveyance. The princess is also a tree. And the mystical conveyance is the metro. It was Epic as fuck.

Point being we went through some hijinks to rescue that damn thing, and here is the proof!

Oh shit, Velociraptor! "Clever girl..."

Princess Ficas is trying to figure out where she would like to go.

That is one happy Dendrophiliac. Down, boy!

That guy in the background is suspicious of Princess Ficas. We later stabbed him.

I am a Tree-Pimp. Note the purple attire. Does she look good to you?

This is me doing the hard sell with the Tree-Pimping. This opportunity is slipping away, get her while she's good!

For those wondering: Yes. Alcohol was definitely involved in our quest. What of it?!? You wanna start some shit! Shut the fuck up!!

Sorry.... There may be alcohol involved in the composition of this blog post.

Anyway- the Epic Rescue of Princess Ficas was a highlight of my trip. Some real Lord of the Rings shit. I was Aragorn. @fearlessdc was Frodo. No takebacks, I called Aragorn! I guess he can have Gimli. He can't have Legolas, because he has to be played by a girl.

Anyway, we finally ended up throwing the ring into Orodruin, the volcano in Mordor. The thing is:

And that's why we took the metro.

PS22 Chorus

I just (re?)discovered this tonight. This is a public elementary school chorus from Staten Island that sing contemporary music arranged by their choral instructor. The lyrics are sometimes altered to be more age appropriate(see below) but what is clear is that these kids are having a great time. And they have pipes!

This is a genius way to get around a huge hurdle that stops so many kids from getting interested in music and the arts in school; most kids don't like chamber music or showtunes. I cannot tell you how much Billy Joel and Elton John I've sang in my life. I think if you sing long enough you learn to really appreciate chamber music, madrigals, etc. but it's really important to have a gateway drug like this.

It's how much fun this guy is having. From middle school through graduation I had somewhere between 6 and 8 different choral instructors and none of them had the enthusiasm that this guy displays. And it transfers to his students. They are clearly having a great time and want to be there. He's able to have fun, work on things he is interested in, and still be doing it all for the kids. Watching them sing makes me want to sing again.

Something else I love is how the kids are encouraged, or at least allowed, to move and sway with the music. Something I used to constantly get in trouble for in choir, all the way up through chamber choir, is that when I got really into singing a piece of music and it really moved me, it also literally moved me. I would get reprimanded for moving with the music, sometimes even dancing, without even realizing I was doing it. I think the director thought I was goofing off, but it was actually totally subconscious and completely genuine. Which is not to say this made Mr. Paul a terrible instructor(though he was, for totally unrelated reasons), you do have to learn to stay still if you are going to rehearse like you perform- and I was a senior in high school- but for Christ's sake that's what powerful music does!! It grabs you and throws you around and you can't even control it.

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I got choked up listening to their cover of Lisztomania. I couldn't tell you why- but it is a great arrangement of a great song.

Final Note: The choral sections on the Passion Pit album "Manners" -in songs like Sleepyhead, Let Your Love Grow Tall and Little Secrets- is the PS22 Chorus! They actually have a section on their blog where you can watch video of them recording with Michael Angelakos. According to their website they have also met every other celebrity in the world, including President Obama. These are the luckiest kids in the world(mostly because of the music, but also a little bit because of the celebrity thing).

Their website can be found here and their YouTube page can be found here.

Final thought: Listening to these kids makes me realize I have mis-learned the words to a lot of my favorite songs.

Random Good Music- 10/18/2010

Here's are the tracks on repeat on my iPod right now that I could find on YouTube, and some I couldn't.

Robyn-Indestructible

I discovered this song Saturday night and, in the two days since, have listened to it 25+ times. "I'm gonna love you like I've never been hurt before" is my current favorite lyric. I am 100% ready to jump on the Robyn bandwagon.

Eyedea- Radio Appearance Freestyle

The rapper Eyedea passed away yesterday at the age of 28 due to a heart attack. I was not familiar with his work, but lots of people I follow on twitter were big fans. I'm having trouble getting into alot of his stuff that I've heard. Lyrically he's amazing but he really loves sampling electric guitar and that just doesn't work in most rap songs unless you are an incredible producer (example: JAY-Z's D.O.A. produced by No ID). This freestyle however, is fucking amazing. Seriously one of the best things I've ever seen. Slug from Atmosphere is good, but Eyedea blows him away.

Ruckus Roboticus- Chicks

I recently bought Adam Warrock's fucking incredible album (more coming on that in a future post) produced by Ruckus Roboticus. Included on it as bonus material was the single off of Ruckus's solo EP- "The Chicks EP." Chicks is an awesome song and I will definitely be picking up the EP.

Well, the digital version of picking it up. Probably Amazon. Bandcamp if it's there. Bandcamp takes the smallest cut, Amazon and iTunes take 30%. If you are buying independent music, try to buy it off that site for the artist's benefit. (end PSA)

Kanye West- Christian Dior Denim Flow

I've been loving Kanye's G.O.O.D. Friday output but, like Monster, I can't stop listening to this track. I am so excited for this album. I love Kanye and I don't even care that he's a total diva. #ITSAPROCESS

This is my favorite track off of Crystal Castles (II). I legitimately cannot get into the rest of the album, even though I like it a lot, because I just keep putting this song on repeat and listening to it instead of anything else.

Dirty Projectors- No Intention

Despite this track being mellow as hell, I sing along to this in my car with the same fervor as I would Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" or any other anthem. This song is a treat. A goddamn treat. I want to take this song out to dinner pay for it.

My Gold Mask- I Don't Need The Reason

I couldn't find this one on YouTube but you can download it here, completely legitimately, for free. This song makes me rock out and smile at subject matter that makes me pretty sad. Maybe that's a crude way to put it, but I think it's pretty high praise.

Other tracks I'm hung up on but couldn't find:

Four Tet- Sing

Adam Warrock's fucking incredible album "The War for Infinity"

That hip-hop album I'm going to write one day

Das Racist- Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)