World Enough and Time

I haven't been paying enough attention. I discovered several things today that quite thrilled me.

1. Agent Coulson is going to be in the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series - played by Gregg Clark. Didn't I say he was alive, hmm? And so he should be. I was fearing that Whedon's S.H.I.E.L.D. would be nothing but a comic romp, divorced from the movies, or the darker reality of the comics. Now I am much less afraid. I'd rather see Coulson in the show than Nick Fury, actually, though it would be great if Fury makes at least an appearance, and Maria Hill as well. Don't ask much, do I?
   
   
2. Seems that The Wasp will be in Iron Man 3 , which suits me fine. Played by Stephanie Szostak. This in to Janet Van Dyne's recent reappearance in the comic. Yup, I'm happy with this one - in both cases. I love it that both movies and books are using strong female superheroes, and not compromising on their powers.
   
   
3. Hawkeye #4 comes out next week. I can hardly wait.
   

This evening, in anticipation of Skyfall, we watched Casino Royale again.

I remembered that I'd loved it, but I hadn't remembered what a good movie it was. The parkour scene itself delights me; but the story is good, Eva Green is marvellous, the villains are good, the romance is lovely... yeah. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again.

Especially Daniel Craig. Lovely man.

Really excited about Skyfall now.

What a great day.

(1) Breakfast with maaseru at Tim Horton's. I had their chicken soup, and enjoyed it.

(2) Worked at her place for a bit.

(3) Went to lunch at Casey's and then went to see The Bourne Legacy with fairestcat. Enjoyed it very much indeed: a good, fast-moving adventure-action film with good characterization and interesting locales. I particularly enjoyed seeing Jeremy Renner fight a wolf bare-handed, but it was also great to see chase scenes in Manila. David Strathairn was in it - and so was Albert Finney, though it took me a while to recognize him.

(4) fairestcat came back to my place and we watched fan vids from various fandoms - Avengers, Captain America, Doctor Who and multifandom vids. Several of them were delightfully self-referential: fan vids about being a fan.

(50 Went to Lisa's place for supper - a vegan supper prepared by Margot. Then we played Boggle, Balderdash, and Quick Word. Great fun. We didn't want to stop, and I ended up coming home too late to take the bus, and took a taxi instead.

I went to see Magic Mike this evening.

I thought it was great to see a movie that had sex in it - it's been a long time. At least, it had a sexual awareness, though there were no actual sex scenes. There was simulated sex, and numerous scenes of naked people in bed together, asleep or passed out.

The most interesting character was played by Matt Bohmer - who had almost no dialogue, and I couldn't even tell you his name. But Matt Bohmer has personality and to spare, and that made him more interesting than all the other rather inarticulate characters put together.

Alex Pettyfer was a disappointment. I'd heard him suggested as an actor who could play Lymond, and in some still photos it looked possible. In this movie, I couldn't see it at all.

I thought the plot was very similar to that of Saturday Night Fever - young man with nothing going for him finds success in disco dancing (or in this case, stripping); and in the end, sees the shallowness of the lifestyle and leaves it for love and, presumably, something better. Except in this movie, the protagonist role is shared between Mike and Adam - Adam slips into the role that Mike has been playing.

I would have had more sympathy for Magic Mike's aspirations of designing and selling handcrafted furniture, if I hadn't thought the furniture he made was horribly ugly.

Cody Horn as the female lead made a nice contrast to the various drunken and sleazy women populating the rest of the movie, but I don't think I've ever seen an actress or a lead character with so little personality or animation. This made it a rather unromantic romance - which was okay, but there should have been some spark, some subtext, some chemistry.

Matthew McConaughey as the owner of the strip club (and lead stripper) was fascinating, and borderline creepy.

What this movie really needed (besides a better writer) was more Matt Bohmer.

I came across this article online: What Could’ve Been: a Black Widow solo film.

Over recent years I've heard a lot of reports that "there will be a Black widow movie", "there will be no Black Widow movie" and now again, I've heard it said there will be a Black Widow movie, though IMDb doesn't seem to know about it yet. With the success of The Avengers, there should be a Black Widow movie: all my friends think so. Prefereably one that tells the story of Black Widow and Hawkeye and what happened in Budapest.

Yes, of cousre I want a Black Widow movie. Myself I'd like a Paul Gulacy-type film noir Black Widow, but I'd also be happy with a movie in the style of The Avengers with Scarlett Johannson. No problem there.

But reading this article, what caught my eye was:

If things had worked out, the movie would’ve been written and directed by David Hayter, a writer on the first two X-Men movies

...And right there I stopped wanting that movie. The guy who worked on X-Men, right, where the women were either weepy eye-candy or silent observers and the men had all the personality. The movies that ignored Kitty Pryde and made Storm into an automaton.

Maybe this time Hayter would do better. But do I have any confidence in that? No. I do not. They had three chances to get the X-Men women right, and blew it each time.

I think we dodged a bullet.

If they do make a Black Widow movie, let Joss Whedon write and direct it. He isn't perfect, but he knows which mistakes not to make.

30 Days of Marvel: Day 15: Favorite Marvel movie actress

Oh, goodie, an easy one.

Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, in Iron Man and The Avengers.



I've always loved the Black Widow in the comics. It's a joy to see her well depicted in the movies.

This is a strong contrast to most - perhaps all - of the other female superheroes I have loved over the decades, who are so disappointingly portrayed in the movies (if they are featured at all) that it spoils my enjoyment of those movies.

If I were to choose my second favourite Marvel movies actress, it would have to be Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts, in the same movies.

30 Days of Marvel: Day 14: Favorite Marvel movie actor

There are so many good ones... But I think my choice has to be: Tom Hiddleston as Loki in Thor and The Avengers.

Looks as if The Avengers is doing better than 'well' at the Box Office:

Avengers at the Box Office.

More about the post-credits scene at the end of The Avengers:

Anyone feeling hungry?

The story of the shawarma:

EW part 1

Part 2

Part 3


And Thanos:

Thanls


Turns out we saw the Infinity Gauntlet in "Thor", and I never even noticed.

30 Days of Marvel: Day 12: Best Marvel movie



Now I've seen it, I can say it with confidence: The Avengers is the best Marvel movie so far. Good script, good characters, good understanding of myths with which the movie deals.

The movies just keep getting better and better.

30 Days of Marvel: Day 12: Best Marvel movie

I'm hoping it will be Avengers, which I'm going to see tonight.