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X3 Follow-Up

As I blogged the other day, talking to a cow-orker in the know, Kelsey Grammar will be playing Beast in the upcoming X-men 3 movie.

My cow-orker is pretty excited about it as he thinks it’s the perfect role. I can see it – he has the speech mannerisms down to play a smart scientist. He and I share the same concerns about Bret Ratner directing though.

Jeffrey Wells’ Hollywood Elsewhere column had a brief mention of Ratner taking over in his “Wired” blog like piece on the front page, seperate from the stories he writes, that’s pretty harsh as well:

06/ 9/2005 5:53 AM

The fanboy community freaked last week when 20th Century Fox announced their decision to hire Breet Ratner to direct X-Men 3. Ratner will of course degrade the franchise. Not in any thuddingly obvious way but in a hundred little ways. One of these is his decision to add more laughs. “Not jokes for the sake of jokes,” Ratner said in a recent interview, but “jokes that come from character humor, that come from characters and that come from the situations.” This sounds to me like a guy saying he doesn’t entirely get (much less get off on) the X-Men mythology or metaphor, and that he’s a tiny bit bored by it so why not throw in some more gags? As Red Dragon was to Silence of the Lambs, X-Men 3…we know how this sentence ends, dont we? X-Men 3 will begin shooting in Vancouver in mid-August.

Episode III, Part 2

I figured out what’s been bothering me about Episode III. For as much as I love it, it’s Padme’s role that bothers me. In Episode I, Queen Amidala was portrayed as a strong character, who loved her planet, and fought the evils of the Trade Federation’s invasion. In Episode II, she was again a strong character as a Senator, trying to keep the Republic together when the Separtists threatened to destroy it.

In Episode III, her role is to be in love with Anakin. She’s not shown as a strong political figure anymore, just as someone who questions what side she’s on. Her love for Anakin is the major plot line, and she’s, at best, a secondary character relegated to worrying, instead of taking action like she did in the first two movies, whether it was traveling to Coruscant to defend Naboo, or going to rescue Obi-Wan in AOTC.

It’s too bad really – she’s much more emotive in this film, and for as good as an actor as she is, and her two awful performances in the first two (which I blame Lucas for more than her), it’s too bad too see her relegated to the sidelines in Episode III.

Some other interesting thoughts on Episode III.

Doubletake in X3 Casting

Reading the news that Bret Ratner is taking over filming X3 (X-men 3), I did a double take when I saw:

The original returning stars have been signed, and the cast is bolstered by Kelsey Grammer, Vinnie Jones and Maggie Grace (“Lost”), who just came aboard as new mutant characters. (As reported by VARIETY)

Kelsey Grammer? Really? I have to assume he’s the villain – his over the top acting might work in that role.

Wait and see, I guess.

Downtown

This weekend, I headed to downtown Minneapolis twice, which I rarely do.

Friday night I visited The Lounge, a bar in the Warehouse district to catch up with some work folk. This was one of the coolest bars I’ve been to in the Twin Cities. Before 10 or 11, they have a small area open near the front doors, with a bar, that turns into a bit of a dance floor later in the evening when it starts getting packed.

We were in the Cathedral room, a private room in the back, that adjoins the larger dance area & bar that opens after 11. The Catherdal room has faux stained glass ceilings, it’s own bar, DJ, and couches. The music was pumping, and a very good time was had.

Definitely worth a visit if you’ve never been there.

Alias Season 4 Finale

I’m finally caught up on my TiVo from all of my traveling, and I watched the Alias season finale last night.

With 5 minutes to go, I turned to Kelly and said last night that Alias had a strong ending to the season that started off horribly. I’ve talked about this enough already, and then they had to drop the cliff hanger to end the season.

Even with all the reboots, I thought this season had tightened up, with more attention to the characters in a smaller environment, better plot management, and tying up the Rambaldi plot line well. Even the plot throwbacks to the first two seasons, with the Helix Protocol and especially the Mueller device from Season 1 and tying that to the finale was well done for those that have stuck with the show all four years, and for those new to the show, it wasn’t overwhelming.

But taking Michael Vartan’s character, Vaughn, the one constant good guy through out all four years, who didn’t have an agenda, who was the steady rock in Sidney’s life, even when he was married in Season 3, and turning him into someone with an evil past – this is almost too much. Implying that he was a bad guy (a different branch of SD maybe?), and there was a reason he was made Sydney’s handler, and then the car crash to leave you hanging, what are we supposed to think? I’ve already suspended my disbelief that Vaughn made a transition from being a desk jockey, a handler, to field operations, and now the show is going to imply he’s a double agent, or at least an agent with a checkered past?

If it’s not one thing, it’s another with this show. With such a strong ending to the show this season and really getting the focus back, I’ll continue to watch. (Yeah, I’m a sucker).

Dr. Who

I came across this article on Dr. Who, which is a primer and brief history for those who never watched the show.

Dr. Who was was one of my first introductions to science fiction. Introduced to me by a friend in grade school in the 6th or 7th grade, I remember many a Saturday night watching it on our local PBS station. Channel 10 would broadcast the entire episode, usually 90 minutes, every Saturday night, and would start over from the first Doctor on when they reached the end of the current shows.

One of the biggest disappointments I remember was in 8th grade, and the 25th anniversary convention was being held in Milwaukee. We had tickets, and my buddy got bronchitis and was unable to go. A year or two later, our local PBS affiliate stopped showing it (if I remember correctly, it was one of the more expensive licensees for a PBS station) and I could catch in on cable on Channel 2, the PBS station out of Madison.

The 4th Doctor was by far the best. I was also a fan of the 6th Doctor, I thought he never got his fair shake, and the storylines with him on Gallifrey were well done.

I’ve Netflix’ed a few of the shows in the last couple of years (The 5 Doctors), and was taken aback at how campy it was, but it was still amusing. I still have a goal of buying The Key to Time episode arc, with the 4th Doctor and Romana, probably my favorite by far.

A Gamer's Manifesto

I couldn’t agree more:

A Gamer’s Manifesto or 20 things Developers need to do now.

  1. Don’t use the online capability as an excuse to release broken games

The first time we hear the word “patch” in relation to a PS3 or XBox 360 game, we’re taking the console back to the store. Filled with our shit.

But surely the console industry, always more business savvy than their PC counterparts, will avoid making us gamers their unpaid beta testers.

Chances of that happening…

…again depends on how many turd-filled consoles they get stuck with. In other words, the consumer always gets exactly what they’ll put up with.