Summer Movie Preview

(I forgot to mention earlier but I have a poll on side of the page.  If you haven't yet please take the time to answer it if you would be so inclined.)

For me at least Summer Movie Season starts in May. The summer of 2012 will be a good one of us nerdy folk as there’s a lot of sci-fi and comic book based flicks coming out. Today I decided to compile a list of some films coming out that appeal to my dorky sense and what exactly I think about them at this point. This is just for fun I’m not seriously reviewing these movies right now and I may have missed something. For the most part these are the films that have been on my radar. Notice of all these films the Fantastic Four reboot is missing. Back some time ago a new movie starring the First Family of Marvel was announced around the same time as the Spider-Man reboot and I was actually pretty excited to hear that. I guess while Amazing Spider-Man was fast tracked Fox kind of dropped the ball with the FF.

Click below for more.

Whedon’s Work Part Two:The Wrath of Beta

So finally here we are with Part Three of my Joss Whedon Rant, which is Part Two of the segment where I talk about his past projects. If you have not read the previous two Whedon entries I strongly suggest you do before reading this one. I’ll wait.



You good? Let's continue.

Firefly (2002)

You can't take the sky from me

Although you can cancel my show

Firefly needs little introduction. It’s the science fiction television show Joss Whedon created that was the best thing there ever was in the history of humanity bar none, shut up, there’s no argument. Ahem. Anyway...

Hitting the airwaves in 2002 the story took place in a future where mankind has long since emigrated to another, much larger solar system. At some point a Civil War broke out between the North and the South The Alliance and The Independents which left the latter side of the conflict badly beaten. Malcolm Reynolds is a former soldier from that side who, as captain of the firefly class ship Serenity, now takes any job (Legal or no) he can to make ends meet along with his crew of highly talented misfits. One day a stranger books passage on their ship, but it soon becomes apparent that he is not who he says he is and his cargo is far more dangerous than he led on (HINT: It involves nudity).

As far as Space Operas go I can’t think of any other series to win me over so fast. I missed the initial broadcast ( A lot of us did) but once I finally got to see it I fell in love with t. It’s also one of the least subtle Space Westerns ever made, which at times was extremely annoying. Cattle on a space ship? Really? The show is well known for its infamous run of Fox that involved pilots being re-shot, episodes aired in the wrong order, some episodes not aired at all, etc. Low ratings led to the show's cancellation after only eleven episodes and the entire world is a worse place as a result. However Joss was able to finagle a sequel squeakquel movie (Serenity) to sort of wrap things up/maybe restart the series as a film franchise. Unfortunately the only people who went to see it were Firefly fans and we already knew there weren’t enough of those guys to save the show from cancellation in the first place so the end result was predictable.

Pictured: The Least Subtle Space Western Ever Made

Good as the show's first (And only) season was it’s hard to say whether future seasons would have kept up that pace. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was NOT “Seven Seasons of Brilliance” and even die-hard Buffy fans will agree to that, so there’s no reason for us to assume that Firefly would have been either. Maybe it would have been wonderful, but maybe it would have been terrible. Heroes had a pretty good first season too and look what happened there: literally years of donkey poop disguised as a TV show. Perhaps it’s best to just enjoy what we got rather than thinking about what might have been.

Astonishing X-Men #1-24 (2004)

Um, this is a superhero book, right?

On top of film and television Whedon also dabbles in comic book writing. I bring up this particular run of X-Men because it is my favorite period of the long time series as well as my favorite of the superhero genre. Honestly up until this point I couldn’t care less about the guy, but after reading the trades I realized that Joss was a gift from a higher power created for the sole purpose of entertaining me and possibly me alone.

Before this comic began, and sadly continuing after it ended, the X-Men books had become a little darker than usual (Though that’s debatable). Grant Morrison, who was penning the flagship title New X-Men at the time, was writing the book as if the team was more along the lines of corporation, the costumes wore black and yellow leather uniforms to better match the 2000 movie, and the plots were wordy and confusing (i.e. pretentious. That’s right I said it). After years of controversial storylines certifiable celebrity Joss Whedon came onboard to write a new book called Astonishing X-Men. The book was fraught with delays, taking twice as long as it should have taken to make two years worth of comics, but in the end it was some of the best, certainly some of the most fun, the X-Men stories ever been written in my opinion.

Before Joss Whedon

After the betrayal (And death) of Magneto Xorn , the death of Jean Grey, and Professor X leaving the school Cyclops and new-lover Emma Frost (It’s a long damn story) re-open Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, and therefore the X-Men, as co-headmasters. In addition Cyclops declared that the team had been isolated from the rest of the world for too long and that they have forgotten they were supposed to be superheroes. He recruits The Beast, Frost, Wolverine (The most super heroic X-Man ever) and the returning Kitty Pryde to form a team to “astonish the world” and remind the people that they are protectors of humanity just as much as the Avengers or the Fantastic Four.

It was basically a big “F-U” to the darker era that dominated their books the first half of the decade.

After Joss Whedon

Strong characters and great arcs helped get make this book a memorable one. Joss obviously had a lot of love for the characters, but Cyclops and Kitty Pryde by far got the best treatment. Cyclops was portrayed as a resourceful badass who was fearless and brilliant while Kitty was a quick witted and incredibly heroic POV character. On a completely unrelated note Whedon has been quoted as saying that Kitty was the biggest influence on his creation of Buffy Summers who also happens to share a name with Scott “Cyclops” Summers. Obviously a coincidence.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (2008)

This is probably Joss’ most quirky work to date. Basically Joss wanted to experiment with new media (Which you are currently enjoying) and created this web series out of pocket. It’s the story of Dr. Horrible, a lovable super criminal who desperately wants to join the League of Evil (Led by the sinister Bad Horse who is exactly what he sounds like), defeat his arch nemesis Captain Hammer, and win the heart of the girl of his dreams. We know all this personal information because Dr. Horrible has a vlog where he shares it with us, the internet viewer. Also it’s a musical.

Partly because of its surreal premise, partly because of its catchy musical numbers, and partly because it features nerd icons NPH (That’s Neil Patrick Harris for the uninformed) and Nathan Fillion (The star of Firefly) the three-part series became a big hit winning awards and lots of critical acclaim. What’s weird bout this Whedon project that everyone seem so like it, even if they despise everything else he’s done. There’s talk about a sequel but who knows when/if it’ll happen.

Yeah. Yeah I would. Both of 'em

Dollhouse (2009)

A picture graph of Dushku's acting range

Oh boy, where do I begin? This as Joss Whedon’s most recent television creation and, having learned nothing from Firefly, pitched it to Fox. This was a science fiction story that focused on a place called the “Dollhouse” which used mind bogglingly advanced forms of mind control (Which was more like Mind Swapping than anything else) to make agents who not only filled a specific role but literally became that role. These agents, known as Ultra Hookers Actives, would be hired out by wealthy perverts clients and used in whatever capacity they wanted. You need a hostage negotiator? Boom! You got one! You need a back-up singer for your tour? Boom! No problem! You need a girl you can bang in an elaborate fantasy where she is completely in love/falling in love with you? Yeah, guess which one of these was the most popular request. Our story focuses on Echo, who is the most popular Ultra Hooker Active. But she seems to be somewhat buggy as she displays an odd tendency to kind of remember all her previous lives including her original one. This show makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Don't worry. There were boy hookers too

Compared to Fox’s handling of Firefly Dollhouse was practically cuddled (But still kind of screwed), but it failed to gain the ratings Fox deemed necessary (Though Fox uncharacteristically gave them an extra season anyway to sort of “wait and see”) and just had its series finale not too long ago. I saw the first season and the first few episodes of season 2 and I wasn’t impressed. Let’s ignore that the idea of removing people’s personality and adding a tailored made one for the sole purpose of being 100% compatible with a horny John; the concept of the show is extremely interesting. The ultimate spy, soldier, baker, whatever you need to get the job done; that’s just plain cool. The problem lies in two areas. #1) Every week Echo and a good portion of the main cast play a different character when they’re on a mission, rarely repeating ones. Since in their blank states, the only weekly version of them we ever see, they are basically dumb (If polite) children who the viewers can’t relate to it’s hard for us to build a report with the cast of the show. Sure there are plenty of other characters in supporting roles, but almost universally there are portrayed as, at best , anti-heroes who do terrible things to achieve dubious "noble" goals (Amy Acker as Dr. Saunders being the sole character that I liked though admittedly it may be due to her Texan accent).

#2) Eliza Dushku was a dreadful choice to play the lead. This is a clearly difficult role that requires a talented actor to pull off the different characters every week while also providing the perhaps futile attempt to make us care about what is ultimately a Blank Slate. Dushku is not that talented. Don’t get me wrong; she’s fine when she’s playing the “tough, bad girl” role (See: Faith from BtVS, Sissy from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) and when Echo happens to become a person that fits that bill it works very well. But she fails at anything at all that calls for a greater range than “I’m a bad ass chick and I don’t take shit from the boys”! Amy Acker, a much better actress, could have done this role with more success. Dichen Lachman, an Australian actress who plays fellow Ultra Hooker Active Sierra, demonstrates repeatedly that she is better at doing Dushku’s job by playing an extremely similar multi-character role. Yet instead we got the undoubtedly attractive, but sadly limited, chick from Bring it On. Now I heard somewhere that Dushku was the one who convinced Whedon to do this project and if true I guess that would explain it. Damn you, friendship!

Amy Acker: Gorgeous & Talented

WHY WASN'T SHE THE GODDAMN LEAD?!?!?

Also there was the fact that the first six episodes or so of the show were dull as dirt and things didn’t pick up until after that, which was admittedly much better television but it was too little too late. Now I gave up on the show about two episodes into Season Two but I understand that, with cancelation looming, Joss went balls to the walls with the remaining episodes with all sorts of exciting turns and plot twists. I may one day check it out fully to see for myself once it hits DVD.

So what have we learned? Well not much. Joss Whedon is very good at making shows I like to watch that other people may think are dumb, is really talented at having his shows get canceled (As is his buddy and Firefly co-conspirator Tim Minear; See the criminally short lived show Drive), is capable of creating things I can’t stand and probably has NPH and Michelle Trachtenberg on speed dial. Lucky! He does have a better track record for entertaining me than most (Looking at you J.J. Abrams) so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for an Avengers film. Assuming he makes it that far, of course.

Joss vs. Beta: Whedon’s Work Part One

So, as in the past, a write-up turned into a giant rant. I’ll be separating this into two parts for easier reading.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Um...go feminism?

One day Joss Whedon, a self described feminist, realized that he did not like the “Damsel in Distress” archetype women usually have in horror films. In protest he wrote a screenplay called Buffy the Vampire Slayer about a valley girl cheerleader who turns out to be The Chosen One who must fight the darkness, the demons and, of course, the vampires. Buffy Summers was supposed to be a “Screw You” to all the notions that a teenage girl had to be protected and cuddled in the face of evil. This was to be a serious story, albeit with comedic undertones. That would have been a fine film. Instead we got a movie that was more “Teen Comedy” and less “Horror Film/Gender Role Deconstruction”. It wasn’t a bad flick, I guess, and it did pretty well in box office but ultimately it was not the story Joss had written. Alas we never saw the character called “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”ever again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997 TV Series)

Dude she's, like, only sixteen!

Five years later Whedon got the opportunity to bring Buffy back, this time as a televisions series but with him at the helm (He wrote but did not direct the film). Seeking to right what once went wrong he agreed and in 1997, to the nerdy guitar riffs of the band Nerf Herder, Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on the new network The WB. It almost instantly became a cult classic that still maintains a strong fanbase to this day. The story again revolves around Buffy Summers but is unique in that the series is actually a sequel to the original script of the film rather than the film itself. Meaning that while the basics of the movie are used as Buffy’s back-story we also get references to things that we never saw happen (Such as Buffy setting her school on fire). Anyway our hero has moved to Sunnydale, CA to start a new life with her mother Joyce but, gosh darn it all to heck, it turns out that the town sits on top of something called a Hellmouth which attracts all sorts of evil things, especially vampires. So now Buffy, still the Chosen One, must fight the forces of evil while trying to keep some semblance of a normal teenage life. In her mission she is aided by some town residents including Rupert “Ripper” Giles, a middle age and English school librarian who is in reality Buffy’s assigned “Watcher” by the mysterious “Watcher’s Council”, two nerds geeks losers with a capital “L” fellow classmates Willow and Xander and also the enigmatic yet kind hearted Angel who is eventually revealed to be a vampire (But a cuddly vampire).

The show lasted seven seasons, the longest show Whedon has ever created to date, and helped launch the careers of Sarah Michelle Gellar (Though she was previously a soap opera star), Seth Green (aka Scott Evil, Chris Griffin and that guy from Robot Chicken), Alyson Hannigan (How I Met Your Mother) and others. As kid I liked the show because I was 13 and I liked any show with vampires and/or teenagers in High School at the time. When I actually got to High School though I watched it less and less because, well, everything sucked and no one understood me. Recently I started watching it again and have realized just what a terrific show this was (Overall, I mean. Certain seasons make me want to die). It featured the exact subversion to horror stories Joss wanted to create in the first place but also managed to win my heart through the strength of their characters and villains. Strong character development and quirky antagonists (The so-called Big Bads of Seasons 2, 3, and 5 are my personal favorites) were the main reason to stick with this show. Buffy is the definition of “Strong Female Lead” and pretty much the stick I use to measure female characters in sci-fi/fantasy television shows and cartoons. I could go on and on about how cool this show was but for now let’s just say that it was “better than bad”.

Pictured: Seth Green and, I dunno, some other folk I guess

I’d be remiss though if I failed to mention that the show in later seasons also featured Dawn Summers, not because she’s such a great character (She’s not) but because she was played by my beloved Michelle Trachtenberg who has in the years since the show ended become the most beautiful woman in the whole goddamn world! If you think different you are wrong. So very wrong.

And yet I've hated nearly everything she' starred in. Weak

Angel (1999)

100% less statutory rape than BtVS

A spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this show focused on 200+ year old vampire Angel. After three seasons of being in a questionable romance with an underage girl he realizes that, as a vampire (And other reasons), he’s incapable of giving her a normal and healthy relationship/future so he leaves town to star in his own TV show. By the way this story, on top of being significantly more sane than the “cut-myself-fest” that is Twilight, was on the airwaves years before Stephanie Meyer graduated from writing bad fanfiction to writing bad “fanfiction-like” novels.

“Allegedly wrote fanfiction” I should say, for legal purposes.

Anyway Angel was once known as “Angelus”, a particularly sadistic vampire who carved a wave of chaos throughout Europe with his equally evil cohorts Darla, Drusilla, and William “the Bloody” Spike. One day Angelus is cursed by pissed-off gypsies by being given a soul, and thus a conscience, so that he agonizes over of the horror he had caused in his long life. Now in present day Angel seeks redemption for all his wicked deeds. After aiding Buffy Summers for a few years in Sunnydale he relocates to Los Angeles to “help the helpless”, eventually joined by a somewhat revolving cast of characters made up of both familiar faces from the original show and newcomers.

Angel, seen with Doyle who was a key cast memb-JOSSED!!

Like with Buffy this show is filled with great dialogue and character moments. If I were to pick a show that is the definition of character development I’d pick this one as characters introduced in BtVS but continued on through this seres displayed a shockingly large amount of character growth (How the annoying and cowardly former Watcher Wesley organically and believably becomes a badass demon killer is something that must be seen to believed). The first few episodes seem to be trying to make Angel a little too much like Batman for my taste but it gets better as it moves on and a little less Noir-ish. Gone is the teen angst that had to exist in Buffy, replaced with more brooding styled angst. This may not sound too great, but it’s the difference between a show about growing up and a show about an adult dealing with the bad decisions he made in his youth. We can relate to that right?

Anyway it lasted for five seasons and was canceled somewhat abruptly ending on a cliffhanger of sorts. There’s a sequel comic book out there that I have no plans on reading.

We’ll pick this up later as I talk about Firefly through Dollhouse. Don’t be surprised if a SMCS Companion Piece or a review pop up before then.