is anyone even reading this?

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so they finally decided to show a lot of venom - including topher grace becoming venom - in the newsest spidey 3 trailer. and i probably should say something more simple than "awesome" but... no, that's possibly the best word for it. just like the other movies, i'm waiting to see it to actually see if that word applies to more than just the trailer, but it did give the fanboy in me goosebumps.

then i had a look at the transformers trailer... umm... now i'm okay with bumblebee not being a volkswagon beetle. not hip enough (or maybe just a licensing issue? still not sure who the automaker sponsoring the thing is). but the glimpses of the transformers i have seen so far look a bit like... well... somwhere between an erector set and johnny 5 from short circuit. now, i'm all for a short circuit revival (though would gutenberg do it? he rightfully skipped the second one...). granted, i've only seen one trailer, and the official cite has been largely uncooperative so maybe there's more to it...

anyway.

so for my own amusement, and maybe for that of others, though i have to again wonder if anyone is reading this, i'm going to make some lists. since this blog is starting with the nerdy comic book and fanboy stuff before the actual "little mouse vintage"/crafty stuff, i figure it's appropriate.

since that seems to be the theme of this post anyway:

top 10 comic book movies:

1. superman.

wait, what? superman? the overgrown boyscout? mr "truth justice and the american way", a line which make me actually giggle when chris reeve says it? (because, really, and i know he says it in the comics too, but the thought of an alien being coming to earth just to fight for the american way seems a little trite - though i know it was a product of the times, and it has worked for the character for almost 70 years....). but really, the first superman movie is everything a superhero movie should be. it gets through the origin story smoothly, hitting all the important notes - though in the full version, the scene with little lois lane on a train going through smallville is kind of silly - and then keeps the right tone of action and drama throughout. it stays true to the character, while reinventing it for a new audience who likely never picked up an issue. maybe it's just a supreme testament to how great richard donner is - his cut of superman 2 is far superior to the "official" version and certainly beats the richard lester films hands down - though i certainly have a soft spot for 3, with the superman vs superman battle...

2. spiderman

see above comments about origin stories, tone, and character. but add the fact that sam raimi is amazing, and that the cast is quite possibly the most perfect for a superhero movie. ever.

3. spiderman 2

might even be better than the first. might.

4. x men 3.

ok, so this one isn't really superior to the first two, it's just a different movie using the same characters and continuing some plot points from them. that said, it is my favorite of the series. screw keeping true to the characters and the comic book storylines - the first two didn't either, though in a lot of ways stayed truer than this one - x men 3 proved that you have a wealth of characters in the xmen story to deal with and many directions you can take them in. or maybe it was just kelsey grammar, all blue and furry, saying out loud what one had only been able to read before: "oh my stars and garters!"

5. batman begins.

sorry mr burton, but chris nolan edges you out in the how to tell an awesome batman story. the best batman/bruce wayne since michael keaton (clooney was a good wayne, kilmer was a good batman, but they both lost it trying to do both). i'd probably say the katie holmes role was the only pointless one - really could have been played by anyone and really did very little in the way of plot or character devlopment for anyone - but that's such a small thing...

6. batman (1989)

but, tim burton's batman certainly comes close. by reinventing the origin, and having joker being the one responsible for creating batman and vice versa, you had a great, though maybe a little too self contained, story. however, it falls short to batman begins as for an origin story, there's no origin. though batman seems to be a new phenomina in gotham, he gives the appearance of having been at it for a while (and seems a little.... old to be brand new at it). the bestthing about the movie is definitely nicholson's joker, though he also seems a bit too old for the character at times. definitely the best on screen bat until nolan though.

7. superman 2 (donner cut)

kneel before zod! that's all....

8. v for vendetta.

so alan moore had nothing to do with it - quite on purpose. so it changed the ending a bit. it's still a brilliant adaptation.

9. ghost world.

ok. not a superhero movie. but i had to include it. far better than it maybe should have been, but also fantastic due to how it stayed incredibly true to its source material while actually telling a more rounded story than the original had done.

10. x men

ok, maybe it was unfair to put this so far below the third one. maybe.

10.5 mystery men

paul reubens as the spleen. priceless.



10 that could have been worse:
swamp thing, fantastic four, the punisher (the second one), the hulk, constantine, supergirl, howard the duck (no, really. it could have been a lot worse... really...), spawn, the crow, josie and the pussycats (again, no, really! it could have been much much worse)

the shit pile:
league of extraordinary gentlemen, punisher (with dolph lundgren), captain america (with matt salinger... jd salinger's son...), blade trinity, judge dredd,