Big news for coming days

I’m still redesigning the Monitor Duty site. (I mean, more than just changing the stylesheet and logo for Christmas.)

Along with the site’s new design and look, we’ll be unveiling a contest! Look for that in the coming days, as it won’t be running for too long. Winner gets a copy of a not-yet-released DVD that all of us geeks are going to want to own. That’s all I can say about it for now.

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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

I don’t care if you have 56K dialup! Watch this trailer NOW!

It’s like someone poured “The Rocketeer”, the trailer for Pixar’s “The Incredibles”, “The Phantom”, “The Mask of the Phantasm” and “Superman and the Mechanical Monsters” into a cuisinart, hit frappe and then poured it into a film directed by Tim Burton.

I don’t know who directs this film. Amazingly enough, the Internet Movie Database hasn’t anything on this movie! It stars Jude Law, Angelina Jolie and Gwynneth Paltrow.

By the way, Superman and the Mechanical Monsters is very clearly referenced in this trailer, almost to the point of swiping. Uh, I mean, homage.

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Matrix doesn’t get SFX nod

MediasharX reports that two movies have been eliminated from the list of seven that can compete for a best SFX Oscar. The two movies are “Matrix: Reloaded” and “Matrix: Revolutions!”

That is baffling. The only saving grace of these two misbegotten Matrix films was that they continued the technical brilliance of the first movie, with a great many special effect sequences that were top-notch.

I will admit that there is some great competition this year, with “Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.” But leaving “Terminator 3″ on in place of one of the Matrix films is baffling. Terminator 3 didn’t strike me as being innovative in the SFX department.

And, I’m sorry, the CGI characters in “The Hulk” looked FAKE. I mean fake in the same way that the CGI in the Mummy looks fake. You know some programmers somewhere poured all their time and abilities into the characters, and it’s quite an achievement…but, despite all that, you don’t believe for a second that the person is actually there. It’s fakey. Meanwhile, the Jurassic Park guys have been making dinosaurs that blend so well you really are afraid that the person across from the dino is going to get eaten. It’s every-bit-as-CGI as the Mummy, but it doesn’t appear fake.

CGI should be a tool used to achieve an effect, rather than the central focus for the audience to gawp. The best use of SFX are the kind where the director’s commentary tells you that the 50-foot dam behind the guy isn’t even there, and you’d never have known if you weren’t told. Lt. Dan’s legs are clearly gone, and they’re not folded under Gary Sinise, either…but it’s all to serve the drama of Forrest Gump’s friend losing his legs, not to make you shout out in the theater, “I do believe his legs are really gone!”

The CGI and other effects in the Matrix films were often seamless, where you could easily forget that you’re looking at a special effect. I think that should at least make one of the films a contender…moreso than Hulk or T3.

I notice the not-yet-released “Peter Pan” is also on the list. Interesting. The remaining films are “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” and “X-Men 2: X-Men United.”

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Marvel’s all-ages comics

It used to be that if you wanted to get a kid a Marvel comic that was acceptable for him to read, here was how you did it: You went and bought any Marvel comic that was on the rack.

Now, you have to look for the Marvel Age title.

Oh well, it’s a start. Marvel’s trying to expand the audience, and that’s worthy of applause.

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CrossGen releases for March 2004

CGE soldiers on! Another full month of comics from CrossGen have been announced. Oddly enough, El Cazador will not be published in March. There is an El Cazador one-shot in its place, but it’s strange to allow a one-shot to replace the ongoing book.

The Ruse series of “Archerd’s Agents” one-shots continues with a story about an experimental submarine. Biggest announcement of the month is the beginning of Negation War.

The February announcements listed several TPBs including the first Route 666 traveler, and I know that’s a relief to many who worried that CrossGen had stopped producing trades. The only TPB in March is the second DemonWars book. This one’s in Traveler format. But come on…more CGE books, please! (I’m especially anxious to get more Sojourn Travelers so I can get caught up on this series.)

Oh, one thing caught my eye with the announcement for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:

Can anything save Sir Charles Basildon and Stephanie Shelley from this albino arch villain?

Jeez, careful, Tony Bedard, or your book is going to get on the list of bad portrayals of albinos! Now, I hate to play up the whining of a put-upon grievance group, but I guess albinos have a better complaint than most. Albinos are always getting portrayed as assassins in movies, but albinism actually leaves most albinos with very poor eyesight.

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Quizmas

What kind of Jedi are you? – Be Warned, there is a vulgarity in the quiz. (WHY do people do that?)

Sadly, I am not a Jedi. I am Han Solo. Actually, I had to fiddle with the results to get that one; I’d originally chosen all the horny answers that related to Padme but I didn’t like being young Anakin, so I changed them all to horny answers about Leia even though I never really like Leia.

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