Once Upon a Geek

This t-shirt design is crazy funny, but I’m sure also very controversial.  It was worn by Matt Fraction, writer of The Invincible Iron Man comic book, at the recent San Diego ComicCon.  I’m not entirely certain who to thank for this awesome design, but Matt was pointing everyone to “Tony Was Right.com”.  Personally, I stumbled across it on the “For the Love of Comics” blog.

I am so very tempted to get this printed on a shirt and wear it to Dragon*Con.  Oooooooooo… I think I’m gonna have to do it.  I love stirring up trouble.

While the reviews have been somewhat mixed, I personally enjoyed the new movie “Hancock“.  I felt the movie delivered on what was promised in the trailers (a down-and-out superhero mends his ways to become a hero).  There were fun displays of superpowers, such as the way Hancock does super-jumps and his landings.  They also did an excellent job showing the collateral damage caused by superheroes.  It makes you think how dangerous it would really be to have super-powered beings running around.

Surprisingly, there is a whole other plot that takes place on the back-end of the movie that was not featured in the trailers.  I won’t spoil it for you, but I imagine that is what most people are fussing about.  The expectation nowadays is that every major plot thread should be featured in the trailer.  When something hits you during the film you weren’t expecting, you should rejoice!  Wow, a genuine surprise during a movie!  When was the last time that happened?  We’ve all become so used to knowing in advance what is going to happen, we’ve forgotten how much fun it is to be surprised.  Good job Hancock!

Finally, there were some concerns early on about the similarities between the Hancock plot of a down-and-out/alcoholic superhero and the potential “Demon in a Bottle” plot for Iron Man 2.  In fact, the director of Iron Man 2 suggested they may have to drop the entire Tony Stark alcoholic storyline if it would be too repetitious of Hancock.   After seeing Hancock, I don’t think they have anything to worry about.  I think the storyline of Tony Stark spiraling into self-destructive alcoholism could still be done quite well without concern for plot repetition.  Just my two cents.

I hate to simply repeat what every other self-proclaimed geek has been saying, but here goes… the Iron Man movie was freakin’ awesome!  I think it might just be the best comic book movie I’ve ever seen.  I love me some Superman II, X-Men II, Spider-Man I & II, and Batman Begins, but this movie was just was great.  The casting was spot-on (loved Downey Jr, Paltrow, and Bridges), the special effects were awesome, the script was energetic and funny, and the fight scenes were very actiony yet you could follow them.

They also did a great job capturing the essence of the character.  I’m not sure if it was Marvel’s influence or Jon Favreau’s, but they did a really nice job of summing up Tony Stark and Iron Man.  My personal guess is that this was successful because it was a Marvel film (rather than some corporation studio).  I think a corporate studio would have just utilized random character concepts they thought the general public would respond to well.  Whereas Marvel/Favreau really understands what has made the character work for the past forty years. 

This movie was INCREDIBLE… no wait…. it was FANTASTIC… no, that’s not it… it was AMAZING… nope, but getting closer… it was UNCANNY… no… how about SPECTACULAR…. almost… it was most definitely WEB OF… okay, one last try… this movie was INVINCIBLE!  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

I can’t wait for the sequel and related movies in 2010 and 2011!