The Incredible Hulk Movie Review

So...THAT is how you make a HULK movie!

Wow. Marvel is on fire. This is the movie that the Hulk deserves...huge, loud, violent and totally fun.

I find it interesting that instead of continuing with the story set up in Ang Lee's flaccid 2003 movie, they instead seem to have embraced the old Bill Bixby TV show. We've got a Bruce Banner on the run, trying to find a cure, and keep from hurting those around him.

The acting is all stellar. Ed Norton does his usually fantastic job as Bruce Banner. Liv Tyler is good as well. I like that she wasn't just a damsel in distress in this film, though she did play that part as well, but her Betty Ross helped move the story along. (Though, I wish we could have had someone who had a bit more of a bookish quality about them...she IS supposed to be a scientist in this, after all!) Still, she and Norton seemed to have some real chemistry between them, and you bought that they were in love. Then, there was Tim Roth. God, he was just creepy in this. Genius casting as the big villain of the film, and he was a great foil to Ed Norton.

As for the Hulk himself, there were a few problems. Outside of Gollum, I've never bought a CGI character in a live action film. It almost always pulls me from the story, and this Hulk was no different. He didn't seem quite real, though the decision to make him look not just solid but hard was a good one...much better than the squishy Hulk of the Ang Lee film. However, he did suffer from not looking quite real enough in many shots, not to mention the fact that his size relative to everyone else changed throughout the film (sometimes he looked 10 feet tall, others, around 7 feet tall)

Still, overall, the movie was great. It's a good time to be a superhero fan.

Best. Post. Ever.

Many props to Giantmonster for this post. God, I'm dying over here.

My Music Video Holy Grail...

I love YouTube. I fell in love with it early, with the classics (All Your Base Are Belong To Us, Star Wars Kid, Numa Numa) But there has been one place where it has always let me down...that Holy Grail that just didn't seem to exist online. It was a barely remembered song with a kick-ass video that I remembered from my Sophomore year in college (my Mtv Year) Michael Penn's "Look What the Cat Drug In (Long Way Down)" I always thought the song was pretty good, but that VIDEO...

It's taken over 10 years, but tonight, for the first time, I found it on a random Google Video search. My holy grail. (Be warned, you will probably have to sit through a dumb commercial)



...crap. Not as cool as I remembered it. (Still pretty damn sweet, though!)

Any other holy grail videos out there? What can't you find?

MUTO - Graffiti Animation

Holy crap!

Muto is a project started by "Blu", who is apparently a graffiti artist from Italy, and who is one part Salvador Dali and one part tripping acid. Creepy, gorgeous stuff. The amount of work and imagination that went into this just stagger me.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Via GiantMonster

Iron Man Review! (spoiler free)

I watched Iron Man tonight thinking, "Jon Freaking FAVREAU made this?!" Seriously, who knew that all along, all we had to do was ask Mikey, and he would make the ultimate superhero movie (you're money, baby!)

So, you read right...ultimate superhero movie. I guess it makes sense. Iron Man is MADE to be put on screen. Nothing looks better CGI'd than a robot. And Tony Stark has always been written to be a super charismatic bastard...who would be more fun to bring to the screen?

But forget all that. It's pretty easy to see why this film worked. Robert Downey Jr NAILED it. You can say what you want about how he could draw on his experience with addiction and blah, blah, blah...but no. Downey was a movie star in the very best sense of the word. He was up on screen, bigger than life, yet believable, and obviously having the time of his life.

Then, there was the story. It was simple. They didn't try and over-explain. It only contained what was needed to tell the tale they set out to tell. Too many times, superhero movies fall in love with what they can do and forget that there has to be a decent story to back it up. Not this time.

I realize I'm babbling a bit, but this is the babble of love. I love this movie, and while I'm a little sad to see X-Men 2 knocked out of the top spot for best superhero movie ever, I'm totally jazzed that Iron Man was such a success. I only hope that people aren't upset when they hit the comic shops next week, hoping to check out the Tony Stark they saw in the movie, and instead they find...whatever the hell they're doing to Iron Man in the comics recently. I mean, he's had a mental breakdown in his own book, he's started a superhero civil war, he's the new director of SHIELD...not a good time for him to get popular in the cinema. (God, if only a good Daredevil movie was out right now...THERE'S a book people would love after picking up a few issues!)

PS - stick around to the end of the credits! Great moment, especially for fans of the comics!!!!

She Branded me with Science!

Ok, this was just too cool, and I had to post about it. It's a website, ok? Filled with tattoos....but not just ANY tattoos!? Oh nO! They are tattoo's that are all science themed.

For example, here you got yer basic tattoo of glycolipid A:



Which is followed by this caption:

A biochemist writes, "Here is a picture of my science tattoo, which is a stylized structure of glycolipid A, the preformed glycolipid membrane anchor precursor I discovered as a graduate student some 20 years ago. At that time, membrane proteins that were anchored via glycolipids, rather than transmembrane protein domains, had just been found and this was the first precursor to be reported. The structure is simplified but basically correct, although considerable artistic license has been taken with bond lengths and angles."

...I KNOW, right?! How freaking sweet is that?! Check this one out:



You know what that one is? It's a glottal stop. The symbol for the sound you make when "stop the airflow by pressing your vocal cords together, build up pressure from the lungs, and then release the vocal cords with an audible burst."

I mean, the site if FILLED with them!

To be honest, I've always wanted a tattoo, but never really felt strongly enough about anything that I wanted it to remain burnt into my skin for the duration of my life. But these people are freaking awesome. They've found their thing, they love it, and they have stained their skin with the weirdest crap ever. I wish I was one billionth as cool as this guy:



Do you know what that is? It's the atomic symbol for testosterone.

Rock on science freaks!

Baracky

This is silly, silly stuff...but I can't help but still get pumped up watching it.




YES!

WE!

CAN!

Secret War Trailer

OK, this is pretty sweet...

SECRET INVASION Animated Webisode!


So far, Secret Invasion has been stellar. It looks like it's going to be just huge. I'm normally not a "comic book event" king of guy, but apparently there have been so many hints about this, and so much groundwork laid for this story that I can't help but think that there will be no cheating here. Big story. Big consequences? Loads of fun.

...Long Time Coming...

What up!? Ok, so it's been...well...a really long time.

(Isn't it amazing how many blog posts start like this? Not just on my blog. On all blogs...)

...but I digress. I'm on here tonight for a few reasons.

1) I actually drew something! Look at me! I drew:

Pinky and the Brain! But my own messed up version of them!

You see, I was in a meeting the other day at work, and someone in the meeting mentioned something about how they saw an episode of Pinky and the Brain the other day, and how they forgot how much they liked that show, which made me think, "Ha! Pinky and the Brain RULED!" So, of course, in my own, "Yes I'm listening to what you are saying, bosses, but I'm also drawing during a meeting" way, I doodled head shots of Pinky and the Brain. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I last saw a Pinky and the Brain cartoon, they looked a little messed up. Kinda twisted-like. And I thought, "I should push that a bit further...that would be fun!" Thus, wah-lah...Pinky and the Brain, a la Troy.

So, that's #1...

2) #2 is kind of bittersweet. You see, I've FINALLY installed wordpress over at my "real" website...http://www.popmatic.com. I'm thinking it's maybe time to move back to where I should be. However, I'll kind of miss Blogger...it's nice around here.

Of course, this probably won't happen until Barack is in the White House (and he WILL be in the White House!) but I'm working towards it. Now I just have to set up a pretty template to make it look nice. Which we all know will take well over a zillion years, so I should probably just stay comfortable where I am.

...and that's really it. Just thought I should pop on and say 'hey, stuff is going on'. I may even get my $h!+ together enough to throw up the fun pictures I took in Chicago this weekend.

Papercut...the Art of Peter Callesen

A good friend of mine (Dave G) sent me a link today that cost me a solid hour of work time at the office. The MIND BLOWING art of Peter Callesen is some of the most playful and beautiful stuff that I've come across in ages. The sheer simplicity of all that clean, white paper and the wonderful shapes and figures created by Callesen is just a wonder to take in. I only wish there was more to see.

Of course, then I wouldn't have gotten ANYTHING done today...