loonyblog.

WARNING: This post violates the rules.

That podcast interview I mentioned a couple of weeks back has been posted over at Apolyton. Head over there to download or stream it, or just click below if you’d like to listen to me ramble about various Civ-related topics.

Thanks to Dan and Annalee for putting up with me and my tendency to answer a question with frequently nonsensical responses. It was fun.

Tim Burton has cast the lead in his upcoming adaptation of Alice in Wonderland…the lucky young lady? Mia Wasikowska, an Australian actress.

She looks the part all right, but there’s just one teensy little problem: she’s eighteen years old. Which is about seven or eight years too old to play the role.

…and with that, Tim Burton’s Alice takes a turn for the decidedly creepy. I fully admit that I was already quite concerned about this movie back when it was first announced last December, but all I really care is that they make Alice in Wonderland into a children’s movie like the source material was intended to be. By casting an 18 year old (even a young-looking one) we’re already into creepy, dirty old man territory.

Let’s be honest here: the world doesn’t need a live action adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. I like the Disney movie just fine (always have, always will). But if you’re going to do it, for god’s sake, do it right.

Alice – my Alice, not the fictional one – will probably be old enough to see her first movie in theaters by the time this comes out. It would have been nice if the movie in question was her namesake. And while I’m not willing to write this off completely, I already have visions of Helena Bonham Carter as a terrifying Queen of Hearts (unconfirmed, but you know that’s the next announcement) and loads of inappropriate material for very young children.

Sigh.

I’ve been extremely busy the last couple of weeks, but in case you missed it, the first Watchmen trailer was released. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it now.

I can wait.

Okay then.

It looks…good. I firmly believe that this movie simply should not exist. Watchmen was created to be a meticulously detailed comic, and a movie doesn’t seem necessary in any way. Not only that, but trying to cram that story into a two hour movie is basically sacrilege. But once you get past that, it’s tough to argue that some of the images in that trailer are very encouraging (pretty much all the ones with Dr. Manhattan, who looks perfect).

I remain troubled by the casting of both incarnations of Silk Spectre. The fact that they felt the need to cast a Swedish supermodel in a major role just doesn’t sit right with me. But the rest of the images look good, and it’s hard to ignore the accuracy to the source material.

But I was thinking about it earlier, and something odd popped in my head. It’s very funny where comic book movies are going. You’ve got Marvel, which is attempting to establish a continuity between their upcoming movies (Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America will all come together in a planned Avengers movie by 2011). There’s also the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, and the inevitable Spider-Man 4, not to mention a slew of other random stuff that’s coming out. We’ve already seen multiple interpretations of the same character within a very short period of time (see Hulk/Incredible Hulk and the two Punisher movies).

Could it be that movies are where comics were in the mid 80s? A medium ready for massive reinvention? Does it really make sense to make a revisionist comic book movie already?

Incredibly, I think that might be the case. This summer has been a flood of comic book adaptations. Iron Man, Hellboy, The Dark Knight, Wanted…even Indiana Jones was in the same style. Even if they market it as yet another comic movie, Watchmen isn’t one (provided they stick to the source material, and I’m reasonably confident they will).

So what could possibly come next? The Dark Knight Returns? Miracleman? Swamp Thing? Rising Stars? God help us all, Brat Pack? Will movies somehow get past the revisionist phase and get to some kind of instant nostalgia era so that we end up with a movie adaptation of Marvels or Astro City?

I don’t know where this is all going. I do know that as my shelves look less like a collection of my favorite graphic novels and more like a list of hollywood blockbusters, my world gets a little more surreal.

WARNING: This post violates the rules.

A quick shameless plug: I’ll be appearing on PolyCast, the official Apolyton podcast in the near future. If you’d like to ask me a question about CivRevolution, they’ve put out an official call for questions.

Should be fun!

</shameless plug>

My travel show of choice at the moment is Dexter, the delightfully dark Showtime series about a cop-slash-serial killer. I love it (enough so that I’m reading the book it’s based on), but there’s something really funny going on with Jennifer Carpenter, the actress playing Dexter’s sister Debra. It was driving me crazy as I watched the whole first season over my last few trips, but I finally stumbled on it…aside from the hair color, she looks exactly Daphne from Scooby Doo. Don’t believe me? Take a look:

Okay, maybe I’m crazy. I’m willing to accept that. But if you watch the show, just think about it. There’s something in her eyes that reminds me of Daphne. It’s uncanny. And for the record, lest anyone assume that I’m insulting Ms. Carpenter by comparing her to a crudely drawn cartoon icon, I’d point out that I think Daphne is hot. Always have, always will.

So there.

Yeah, it was great. It wasn’t Spider-Man 2 or X-Men 2, but it was a great action movie. And forget the special effects, Gwyneth Paltrow’s wardrobe alone makes the movie worth sitting through.

I left this one out of my post yesterday, but apparently Rachel McAdams was originally Jon Faverau’s first choice for Pepper Potts. I think we won out here.

Anyway, I’m late to the party on this one, I know. But it was a fun movie. Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to get to see Hellboy II, The Dark Knight and Wall-E, and I’m all set for summer movies (Hulk I can wait for on DVD).

If you’re like me and love comics, and comic book movies, then chances are you know about at least a couple of actors that tried out, or were rumored to have been involved in some of your favorite movies. Being the obsessive fan that I am, I know of a lot of them…here are a few of them.

Naturally, because of personal interest, there are a lot of potential actors in various Superman movies, but I think I’ve covered the Marvel spectrum as well, with could-have-beens from Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man and Fantastic Four.
Be warned, some are a little painful (for differing reasons).

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I know I’m easily amused sometimes, but this PVP strip is damn funny. And if you don’t think so, then the hell with you.