thehubby

[thehubby]

A sad day. Though the last things I had seen Terence Stamp in were video games (he had parts in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Halo 3), not only did he brazenly out-act Marlon Brando in the opening of 1978's Superman, he filled an almost impossible role in the sequel, creating a villain that was every bit as ruthless and sinister as Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, but far more imposing upon Superman. He will be missed.

[thehubby]

Best of all pastries at the fair for my cherry cream cheese danishes!

[thehubby]

Let me say that immediately putting callers on hold to Hall of the Mountain King and letting it play a full cycle before you get back to them is a choice.

[thehubby]

Like a quiet nap on clean sheets.

[thehubby]

Don't threaten me with a good time, Wendy's.

[thehubby]

It's that time of year again...

[thehubby]

I feel like after my post 7 months ago expressing my excitement for this year's Superman movie, I should post a follow-up since I took the time to catch it at our local cinema yesterday. According to activity on Tumblr, some of you are still finding this post, probably due to the movie's recent release.

Alas, the movie is, in my opinion, not very good. The reasons why are complicated.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

It's not because of the acting. The acting is very good. David Corenswet (I had to look up his name because I have no idea who he is which is okay because Christopher Reeve was relatively unknown before his role in Superman as well) makes for a great Superman: kind, mild-mannered, down-to-Earth in his Clark Kent form and formidable as Superman; they even show how hard it is for him to balance the two when he is interviewed by Lois early on in the movie. Nicolas Hoult is the Lex Luthor of this age: brilliant, obsessed, absolutely ruthless, utilizing every resource of the modern era from technologies he develops himself down to social media. He is a little too crazed for my liking, but he has good reason to be, which I'll discuss in just a bit. Rachel Brosnahan nails it as Lois Lane: reporter to the core. She supports Superman convincingly, they possess good chemistry, and yet she will not let her feelings for him keep her from the pursuit of truth. Other characters are fine, if a bit one-dimensional. Nathan Fillion kills it as Guy Gardner, no surprise, but special mention goes to Edi Gathegi as Mr. Terrific, who so perfectly captures the "I'm so over cleaning up the messes caused by all the idiots around me" vibe you would expect of someone with superhuman intellect. I found Martha Kent's accent distractingly over the top, but Johnathan Kent was pretty much perfect.

Direction, lighting, special effects, all that, are not the problem. It's a comic book action movie, you get what it says on the tin. I do think that there is a slight disconnect in the tone of the movie, which is probably attributable more to direction than script. The movie is at times humorous bordering on campy, and at other times grossly bleak and dark. The distance between these two extremes is too great in my opinion. You look at a movie like Iron Man or even something like Suicide Squad, and there are serious moments and quip moments. But Superman has goofiness like Krypto the Dog knocking Superman over in a slightly-overused bit about how he's not good at being a dog and then shortly later Lex Luthor just playing Russian Roulette with an innocent civilian and shooting them right in the head before effectively shrugging and going off to find someone else to shoot. It's practically bipolar at times.

Adherence to the rules of the DC universe and its own in-movie rules is definitely *a* problem. There are numerous times where we're told by very smart people in the movie that something is definitely going to happen, and then it doesn't happen. Superman should suffocate, he should be destroyed by an anti-proton river and it doesn't happen. His cellmates should be destroyed by the creation of an artificial sun which occurs like five feet away, but it doesn't happen. All of these near scrapes and escapes seem to come about not because of some ingenuity of the character or moral standing but simply because he's Superman and he has to win.

And that's the big problem with the movie to me. It doesn't feel like a movie where Superman triumphs because he is the hero that can save the day, but because the universe bends its own will to make sure he wins. This is a movie where Lex Luthor should have won. From the very start, we see that for years Lex has been gathering data on Superman's fight styles, collecting his DNA at combat sites, arranging social media and government influence against Superman, building technologies designed to overcome him. He has absolutely done all the planning necessary to win and executed it brilliantly, but the universe just won't let him win. Any time some mortal harm threatens Superman, the rules of the universe bend in his favor or someone else comes to save him. There's something to be said for allies and friendship and all that, but it gets a bit tiresome.

Lex views intellect as the greatest achievement of humanity, and his own intellect as the greatest among humanity's, but that is nothing compared to Superman, who is effectively given godlike powers and the "fawning" of the populace. He sets out to destroy Superman for the sake of humanity, and he is right to do so. It is revealed during the movie that Jor-El sent Kal-El to Earth to subjugate humanity. Now, obviously, Superman hasn't done that (at least outside of the Injustice universe), but he could, and no one would be able to stop him if Luthor didn't. Luthor is painted throughout the movie as a villain and he does kill people and he does commit evil; his methods are downright heinous. But he actually has a valid reason to go to such extremes, which is that the rest of the world are naive fools. Even those who acknowledge the potential for abuse of power like Lois don't press Superman to back the f off as much as they should because, how can they? He's a god among insects.

Anyway, despite some really great written moments, good acting, a well retuned John Williams soundtrack, this movie does not manage to capture the essence of the old Christopher Reeve films. I think it's worth watching to make your own judgement when it comes out on streaming or something. But I can't recommend paying money to see it in a theater. For my part, I'll just set my timer for the next comic book movie I'm actually excited about, Beyond the Spider-Verse in two years.

[thehubby]

Now that's some serious advertising budget.

[thehubby]

There's no feeling quite like watching a beleaguered, thirst-ridden honeybee sup on a hot day at the birdbath you scrubbed out and filled fresh this morning.

[thehubby]

The internal vibe if @keyofjetwolf and @docholligay started a band, courtesy of Rock is a Lady's Modesty.

Bonus: They can also hate the patriarchy:

[thehubby]

Fig. 8-3. Regular binder clip (left); anime protag binder clip (right).

[thehubby]

One of the best scenes (along with the box-drawing scene) from a pretty great anime. Not only is this pride-relevant but it's such a subtly scathing indictment of the motivations of NPCs in games.

This is still one of the greatest things ever made.

[thehubby]

Finished my first marathon. Dead last in my age group, bottom 15% overall. And you know what, I'm okay with that. This race was absolutely brutal, the heat was unbelievable,, and my training was admittedly sub-par but I did not stop and I also slowed myself when necessary so I didn't collapse as some did. Sometimes finishing last can be a victory.

[thehubby]

First laugh of the day

"I'm here for the free bus ride to Molt."

Well, maybe you had to be there (and a Montanan), but my fellow marathon runners and the bus attendant laughed.

[thehubby]

Steel isn't strong, boy. Flesh is stronger.

"Steel isn’t strong, boy, flesh is stronger! Look around you. There, on the rocks; that beautiful girl. Come to me, my child… That is strength, boy! That is power! The strength and power of flesh! What is steel compared to the hand that wields it? Look at the strength in your body, the desire in your heart."

This speech is very relevant to me today. Of course, it's a lot more compelling when you listen to James Earl Jones deliver it, but the sentiment remains.

[thehubby]

[thehubby]

Beer run successfully completed!

- Training for marathon instead of 5k

- Training disrupted by new job

- Terrible at quickly drinking (and belly sloshing) beer

Still finished 13th overall! Very happy with my result even if it's at least 4 minutes over what I normally would hope for.