ST Get In Line - A Social Countdown to Episode VII... v. 2.0

YA?

 

Man, I'm so glad other people are voicing their burnout with this stuff. I have seen IM1 and 2, Thor, Captain America, and The Avengers. I didn't like any of them. In fact, I found Avengers to be exceedingly obnoxious, as if it "knew" it was cool, but really wasn't. And what really struck me is how Whedon (who I am no fan of in the first place) totally sidestepped anything remotely artful in his delivery. The cinematography was boring, the story was abysmally pedestrian, and I can't even remember what the music was like.

I did enjoy Nolan's first two Batman movies enough. Dark Knight is a great movie, really, but not anything like what people make it out to be. TDKR was awful though. Just really, really bad.

I think the superhero craze is inflating to the point where, unless Marvel and Disney have an ingenious exit strategy, it will collapse in devastation. Having said that, I am eagerly awaiting X-Men: Days of Future Past, because the X-Men are the only superheroes I've ever cared about in the first place. Yes, Wolverine: Origins and X-Men: The Last Stand were really horrendous, but that's not such a bad track record when you look at how great X2 was across the board. X1 and First Class were so enjoyable by themselves, and I was pleasantly surprised with how solid The Wolverine was (until the last act, which was just a bizarre shift in storytelling and tonality).

I tend to agree that SW is a different animal, but I do have fleeting concern for how well it can keep ahead of audience fatigue. Hopefully Lucasfilm knows that people would like to see a break from the formula with the spinoffs and for them to try something new. In fact, I'm very confident that this will happen. I would love to see SW drift into different sub-genres like noir, or horror. That could certainly facilitate a newness to something that will, on paper, appear to be tired. I mean 9 core films + spinoffs + TV shows? It sounds like a lot. But as was said earlier, since the 90s SW has permeated media outlets and there have been no signs of the currents slowing, nor audience demand weakening in the slightest. Even with alleged "failures" and "missteps."

 

I'm a fan of Whedon for his humor and characters, which are best when he has several seasons to build them up, but artfulness isn't really one of his strong suits. I thought The Avengers was a slightly better than average superhero movie, but nothing too great. I much prefer him as a TV writer/producer, although I still haven't made it very far into AOS.

 

What a crazy week. 3 papers due in 2 days earlier this week. Paper on the economic reasons on why Japan, Germany, and Italy started WWII, paper on comparing Confucius and Mencius and paper on the creation of the Erie Canal and Capitalism back then.

 

Which is why I'm going for a certificate and not a degree. I'm done with the week's homework.

*still* nothing official? Ugh. Why do I bother?

 

Another fine all-windows open day, another round of good rock'n'roll and creative boosts and lots of coffee, hah. This time around, script writing.

 

Tonight is weigh-in for my son's cub scout pinewood derby race (small wooden race cars the scouts build and race on a track). Tomorrow morning is the big race. [checkered flag icon]

 

This may sound silly to you, but as someone who's outside of USA, I kind of thought that's something people only do in 80s cartoons

Best of luck to him!

 

EHT: The Pinewood Derby was actually a big deal for me back in the day. Miraculously, I won it once with a New York Yankees-themed car.

Good luck with the race.

 

I remember those days well. I still have my cars in the attic. Good luck to him!

 

Haha, yeah... I was in cub scouts in the 80's and we did the pinewood derby then too. It appears that nothing about the cars has changed either. Thanks!

Thanks for the other wishes of good luck too. Hopefully I have good news to share later. It's his first time, since he's a tiger cub (first year of cub scouts).

 

You did take a few hints from Ben Hur, right? Spikes on wheels and all that?

 

I wanted to, but sadly those types of modifications aren't allowed. Something about cheating not being in the spirit of friendly competition or something.

 

I'm actually really excited for Guardians of the Galaxy, it looks ridiculous, but that's part of the fun.

Good luck to your son, EHT There were a lot of groups and clubs that did that when I was growing up, but sadly I was not one in of them... I always thought it looked like fun.

 

Thanks mavjade ! Regarding GOTG, I honestly can't get into the idea of seeing it at all. Though there is something fun about a raccoon with a machine gun.

 

I got second in my pinewood derby race. Ninja-turtle theme!

I am fascinated by foreigners views of this kind of thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinewood_derby

 

When I was in, a bunch of us finished cub scouts and then quit... not wanting to be boy scouts. I kind of doubt my son will want to stay in beyond cub scouts either, which is fine, but he's enjoying it now.

 

I went from Tiger Cub through Cub Scouts and into Boy Scouts and made it to 1st Class. A bunch of us quit at the same time when we realized we were behind schedule to make it to Eagle Scout. Another troop merging into ours also made it less fun and helped with the decision to quit.

 

I know I'm a bit late on this but YA stands for Young Adult.

 

Ah, OK... thought it may have been that. Thanks.

 

did you ever see Donner's cut of Superman II? It makes House Party look like House Party 2

 

Yeah I like the idea of it and I would have much preferred if he had been able to finish his movie, but I have trouble watching that cut because it's just too unfinished... the Lester footage doesn't blend as well as in the final cut, the test footage really throws me out of it, and it needed a new ending after they used it for the first movie. So I still pretty much stick with the theatrical version and lament what might have been.