The Geek Chorus #4: In Which I Defend Power Girl's Cleavage (While Trying Not to Sound like a Pervert)

DC Comics has gotten a lot of flack recently for their treatment of female characters, most of it very much deserved. The behavior of fan favorite characters like Starfire, Catwoman, & Harley Quinn since in relaunch last year have been more than just contrary to their previously established personalities, it's been outright degrading. These story decisions have resulted in considerable backlash from the online community, so it's understandable that the leadership of DC Comics would want to do something nominally pro-feminist to counter this and repair damage to their reputation. However, in the image above is their idea of making amends, they've clearly missed the point.

The Reviewaverse Saga Ep. 6

The 6th part of one of the most ambitious projects to be attempted by a reviewer is done...and I make a cameo! Seriously, this video is frellin' gorgeous, take a look.

The Geek Chorus #3: Confessions of an Ex-Prequels Fan

It's Friday. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace has been 3D-ified & re-released. It's been almost 13 years since this film first came out. And in that time, from the looks of things, not a single goddamned thing has changed. The fans are still angry and bitter, still hurling insult after insult at George Lucas & his creations. After more than a decade, it seems they can still find more things they hate about the prequels and are determined to let the entire world know. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few people light aflame a few more effigies of Jar Jar Binks to mark the occasion. I once rode the very same bandwagon for many a year. But at this point in my life, I'm starting to wonder why. I've been in a generous mindset lately, striving to, in the immortal words of Abed from Community, "like liking things." In the spirit of that, I'd like to share with you my experience with these three movies, because frankly, they don't quite match those of your typical Star Wars fan.

"The Death & Return of Superman" Breakdown

So I've been hard at work writing the new Lunatic Fringe episode (I might take a day next weekend to review Ghost Rider 2, but aside from that finishing this is my goal for the month), when I come across this little video that's been circling the web. And since it is tangentially related to the last movie I reviewed, I figure than enough of an excuse for me to rant about it.

See, the screenwriter of Chronicle was Max Landis, the son of John Landis. Apparently Max is a comic book fan (seeing as he wrote Chronicle, that's not surprising). He is such a comic book fan in fact, that he apparently got angry enough about a comic to make a 15 minute short film about how much he hates a comic book. The object of his disdain is the 90's publicity stunt known as The Death of Superman and it's follow-up The Return of Superman, as well as that weird stuff that happened in between. Certainly not masterpieces, but considering some of the shit that the industry pulled during the 90's, The Death of Superman was one of the relatively less crappy in my opinion

Landis however, does not agree, and is willing to devote a significant amount of his time and resources to letting the world know. The video is overall pretty hilarious and well put together. However, Landis has billed this thing as "somewhat-mostly-accurate educational parody film" and it's that educational part I have beef with. All comedy aside, Landis does have an actual point to make, and the problem is that point is completely asinine. I probably should just ignore it and get on with my life, but it's been stuck in my head for the past few days, and honestly I just need to vent my thoughts so I can get back to work. So join me in this minute to minute breakdown of the entire film after the jump.

Anarchy at the Movies: Chronicle

The found footage movie for people who hate found footage movies.

Anarchy at the Movies: Top 10 Best Films of 2011

Josh finally lists his top 10 movies of 2011.

And Not a Single Fuck was Given that Day

Hat-tip: Cinema Blend

So, apparently J.J. Abrams has finally elected to get off his ass and make the damn Star Trek sequel. Hear that, JJ? That's the sound of no one caring. It never ceases to amuse me how, despite the ludicrously high praise the first film received and the disturbing number of fans defending it as "just what was needed to bring the franchise back", the hype for a follow-up to this now 3-year old film has been virtually nonexistent. "Mild curiosity" seems a overly generous way to describe the fans reactions every time a casting rumor or story clue is released. Sorry defenders but this movie most certainly did not "bring the franchise back". Your argument is invalid.

In fact, the emotion I'm most sensing from the fans with regard to this film is fear; fear that they'll be stupid enough the make Khan Noonien Singh the villain. Fortunately that seems not to be the case at the point, meaning the internet community can return to their default state of complete apathy on the subject. Honestly, the only thing that has me the slightest bit interested it finding out who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing. The common belief is that he's playing a villain, but he hardly seems the Khan type, nor does he seem a likely choice to play a Klingon baddie. I could easily see him as a Romulan commander (an actual Romulan, not those tattooed thugs from the last one that might as well have been Klingons), but they already did the Romulans. It'd be amusing to see him play Q, or Trelane if they wanna stick with TOS characters, but that seems unlikely. The old "crew jerked around by a playful, omnipotent asshole" is not a very cinematic plot. Though if they are insisting on sticking to TOS characters, the question must be asked: Why? They've already said "fuck off" to the continuity, there's no reason the Borg can't show up a century early now.