Thanks to BMW, I was able to see a pre-screening of Mission: Impossible 4. I will say that I didn't have very high expectations for the film. I figured it had been beaten to death already and that Tom Cruise just wanted another excuse to go rock climbing and make money doing it.
The interesting thing, to me, is that gender-flipping the JLA exposes the male gaze like a flashbulb. Power Guy is wearing next to nothing. (Good thing he's built.) Hunter's costume exposes his belly.
"We try to keep it pretty scantily clad for [the men] because that's how women are portrayed," says [the cosplayer playing Superma'am]. "We weren't scantily clad for ourselves because that's not the point. We're showing that girls can be clothed and be superheroes because, most of the time, they aren't."
YES. YES. A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
(And, because I can't resist, check behind the cut for a picture of me as a female Fifth Doctor.)
It was a good weekend. I have officially seen Harry Potter 7.2 twice, and am doubly depressed now. (In all seriousness, I don’t know what they expect us to do with ourselves now that it’s over.) I also had the opportunity to watch more Star Trek: The Next Generation via Netflix streaming. Oh, yes, and we had the first The Dark Knight Rises trailer released with HP no less. I believe there are some pirated versions on YouTube.com. (Beware of the fan mades!)
In case it hasn’t been made apparent by now, I am a fan of many different ‘verses. Which is why this weekend was awesome for my general nerd, because of those things listed above, and *gasp!* Peter Jackson has finally thought it prudent to bestow upon us the first shot of Thorin (Dwarf of Awesome!) from The Hobbit.
[click image to embiggen]
The entire getup looks quite… Klingony wouldn’t you say? Very Martok-esque with the hair. Even the sword, which is beautiful by the way, looks like it would be mounted somewhere in Worf’s quarters.
I am not ashamed to say that I literally leaped up and down, clapping my hands, and squeed when I saw this photo yesterday. (Just ask Beatrice Blythe.) Why? Because that, my friends, is the fabulous Richard Armitage underneath all of that armor and makeup.
I am happy to say that I have been a fan of Richard’s since about spring of 2006, when I saw the BBC miniseries North & South. (Not Patrick Swayze in the U.S., mind you.) The man won me over right then. You can also see him as Guy of Gisbourne in the latest BBC television series Robin Hood. He also plays the love interest of the adorable Geraldine Granger in last The Vicar of Dibley Christmas special.
Now, however, Richard is going main stream. I’m so proud! I was thrilled beyond belief when I found out he was cast as such an important role in The Hobbit. What’s even more thrilling is that you can also catch him this coming weekend as Heinz Kruger (evil Nazi in the trailer) in Captain America.
I would like to pause for a moment in my fan girl support of Richard to examine the costume a little more closely, because it is amazing. One of the first things I noticed about this was his hands. Those are not his hands. (Thank the Powers that Be!) I am in love with Richard’s hands. The only things of Richard that is still left are his eyes and mouth. Here, have a picture of Normal Richard purely for referencing purposes:
[click image to embiggen]
As you can see, I like to "reference" images of him quite a bit.
I could not be happier with Richard’s success (I'm sure he shares in my happiness. :P), and that his fan girl base will do nothing but expand over here in the U.S. I’m so excited to see what other projects he’ll be involved in from here on out. And, like Tom Hardy in Star Trek: Nemesis, Hey, I saw him first!
You may have heard about the upcoming (and unnecessary) Fright Night remake. I say unnecessary because, well... Fright Night was a campy horror/comedy classic. The promos for the remake appear to be playing it totally straight horror, though. It may just be the trick of the trailer. You decide:
Hmm. On the one hand, vampires are hot right now. On the other, scary vampires are NOT hot right now. Now is the time of the sparkly, boy band, My-Little-Ponies-with-fangs vampires.
(You thought I was kidding, didn't you?)
The original was saved from the ick by humor (and by Roddy McDowell and Chris Sarandon being funny/campy and serious by turns). This one might be saved by-
Wait, what was I saying again? Oh, yeah. This new Fright Night has Anton Yelchin as teen protagonist Charlie Brewster, Colin Ferrell as Jerry Dandridge, the vampire (I buy him as scary and menacing because he's always creeped me out a little. It's the eyebrows, man), and DAVID TENNANT as Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell's character in the original).
DAVID-FREAKING-TENNANT, Y'ALL!!! In guyliner.
David Tennant is a very fine actor. (So is Colin Ferrell, for that matter. *shudder* If you're into that sort of thing.) I mean, Tennant's Hamlet was awesome, and he made an absolutely indelible Doctor in Doctor Who. TruFax.
That said, the rest of this post is mostly eye candy and carnal squee, because I want to and I can. Collected promotional images from Fright Night (2011) below the cut.
Not much of substance can be said about this film because....well, let's be honest; it doesn't have much substance as far as film snobs are concerned.
In general, I'm a critic of films made and released in 3D because it seems as though the only purpose of the technology is to make things jump out at the faces of audience members. The movies I've liked that have been in 3D have usually been made so in post-production stages, meaning that the touches are far more about aesthetics and less about "Look! Look! It's like it's gonna hit you!"
Tron: Legacy actually uses 3D in a manner that contributes to the film. I'd have to re-watch it in 2D to be sure, but I don't think I'd be nearly as fascinated by the Grid if I did so.
The whole world is essentially digital anyway, so hey! Why not make it even more intensive? It's great. It makes for better eye candy.
Not only are we getting the Thor teaser in theaters, we're getting it in 3-D, thanks to Disney's choice to buy back the distribution rights for the Thor movie from Paramount. If you weren't thankful for the Disney buy out of Marvel before, you have reason to give thanks now. Putting Thor in front of Narnia is a great move, in my opinion. Narnia is an all ages flick, without a real gender bias. If they want to attract the women to Thor, this is their best chance!
For more information, head over to Marvel.com. And don't worry-- if you can't make it to see Narnia, the trailer is going to be released online Friday, Dec. 10th, too! My sources say to look for it on Yahoo around 7pm Eastern!
It will not surprise those familiar with this space that we GeekaChicas have no problem sexually objectifying men. In fact, it comes as naturally to many of us as objectifying women does for some men. In our reviews, it is clear that the attractiveness of the male leads sometimes has an impact on our enjoyment of movies and television shows.
To deny that fact would be intellectually dishonest, and totally counter to our mission at GeekaChicas, which is nothing more than to be here, and to be ourselves. (We Chicas often hold different points of view on issues of morals or politics, but GC is committed to providing a forum for discussion.)
We're outspoken, opinionated women. Some of us like men, and not only for their brains. Therefore it's only natural that we should review Filament Magazine, a magazine for women who like men and intelligent thought. (As the tag line to the left reads, "No Fashion, No Diets, No Celeb Rubbish.")
What it does offer is a slick, smart read for women who think more about the way we relate to the world than simply what makeup or clothing we need in order to snag a man. In fact, this magazine has had articles exploring the possible link between bras and breast cancer, the way neuroscience and science fiction are changing our view of such conditions as cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorders, and Capoeira as dance, martial art, game or all three.
Hooray! The Powers That Be may have denied us our David Tennant fix by not taking "Rex Is Not Your Lawyer" to series, but we now have a clip!
Verdict: American accent is OK, but distracting. Why couldn't they let him use his natural accent? David Tennant using his Scottish accent is at least 1000 times sexier than David Tennant with any other accent. This has been proven by science.
Wherever I go, it is the question on everyone's lips*:
"Nightsky! How's the aperiodic quilt coming along?"
It will not surprise you to learn that it continues to grow... aperiodically. From its humble beginnings as my something-to-do-in-line-at-Comic-Con handwork (a course of action I heartily recommend, by the way), it has grown to... well, see for yourself, in these exclusive crappy photos that I had to take with my cell phone camera because I am not 100% sure what I did with the real camera.
I'm not kidding, my friends. This lady's got a lot in common with my own views. Whether or not they have anything to do with geekdom is irrelevant at this point.
You know what IS important?
If I mention a particular actor's physical attractiveness, "objectify" him as one may say, I'm automatically told to stop behaving as a squealing fangirl.
Would you like me to list the number of times male reviewers have discussed the eye-candy factor of female leads? It'll take quite some time.
Oh, wait! Men, in their infinite wisdom, have made it incredibly easy for me to point out their objectification of the opposite gender!
Sweet! Now I can be lazier than ever in explaining to men why they should now shut the hell up about womenfolk discussing the finer physical points of their gender.
Ke$ha herself, attitude about her music aside, states flat out that she uses her songs to turn men's own attitudes against them. See also:
I must preface this piece with the following, as it is quite well-deserved: Timothy Olyphant, you are amazing. You look so different in every single film, and you get into each part so well that I often don't even realize you're playing the (super hot) protagonist until I run to IMDB. You are a fantastic actor, and I applaud you. Oh, and I must reiterate the utter and complete hotness. Seriously. You are unbelievably hot. Call me.
I was looking forward to seeing The Crazies for a long, long time. For those not already aware, this incarnation of the film is actually a remake of a version released in 1973. It's been moved from Pennsylvania to Iowa, but it is, in fact, a remake.
The Crazies is about how incredibly stupid and incompetent the government can be.
Semi-spoilers may follow.
Politics aside, the government manages to royally screw up the transportation of a biological weapon (for which it apparently royally screwed up the creation of a vaccine or a treatment). It then proceeds to screw up its incredibly stupid transportation fiasco.
For the benefit of humanity, I had a research chemist put together a "how-to" manual for secret government programs that unleash diseases on their own populations because they apparently hire complete idiots. I call it "Biowarfare Oopsies for Dummies." Content is his. Photos added by me.
If you knew me in Real Life, you'd probably already know that I'm dangerously addicted to TED Talks. If you are reading this and have no idea what TED is, here's an explanation from the TED website:
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.
The TED Talks are video recordings of people giving talks at these TED conferences. The smartest, most accomplished people in the world, telling me about their work, their ideas, their cutting edge gadgets. Right there on the web, for free.
I could lose DAYS on this stuff. I'm not the only one. Last year, my husband and brother-in-law (with total family involvement from our excited children) hacked their Wii remote to create a digital whiteboard, a touchscreen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer after watching this TED Talk by Johnny Lee:
I ask you, where else could you find information that would make a whole family excited about disassembling part of an expensive video game system instead of just, you know, using it to play games. (Of course, later that summer we created a low-tech air conditioner with a a box fan, a length of copper tubing and a bucket of ice water, so maybe we're not the best examples.)
Still there is a lot of information to be had there. I can trace the fact that my sons are now home schooled back to this talk by Sir Ken Robinson, about how schools kill creativity (fair warning- it's 20 minutes long, but quite amusing):
Now, for the tech-lovers among us, take a look at this jaw-droppingly awesome augmented reality mapping technology from Microsoft:
They have now added a "Best of the Web" feature which allows them to share extraordinary and inspiring talks that were not recorded at TED conferences. Like the Harvard commencement speech given by J.K. Rowling that has so recently moved and inspired me, The Fringe Benefits of Failure.
Many of the shorter, more entertaining videos have made their way onto YouTube. The best of these give us insight into our world and ourselves, or else give detailed instructions on how to turn household appliances into doomsday devices.
Well, okay. Not really. But TED Talks are like the best bits of the best lectures you might ever have heard in college, and they are totally free. What's not to love about that?
I am going to leave you with one I found to be quite fun, though perhaps not earth-shatteringly revolutionary. Micheal Shermer: Why People Believe Strange Things.
Space shuttles are for sale, people. And as sad as I am that the shuttle program is ending, I'm also curious to see where NASA is going to go with their next program.
Unfortunately, I'm a little short of the $28.8 million price tag as far as my personal funds are concerned. Wanna split one?
We can keep it in the field behind my house, and the engines are free! All we need is a few mechanical engineers, and we can start our very own commercial spaceflight business. Let's give Richard Branson a run for his money.
Even better, let's actually go through with the plans I gave my university for my degree: let's equip it with phasers and torpedoes and go build a base on the moon.
From there, who knows? I think the grand majority of Cool Space Stuff is going to come from the market at this point instead of from NASA.
When you’re a fan of several different franchises as I am, you have to realize that in doing so, there is a certain amount of risk involved.A danger of your fandom not living up to your expectations and/or coming to the point that causes you to ponder “Why in the world did I ever start watching/reading/playing this?” is always present, even if it is only the danger of the story ending.
I first came to grips with this painful fact at the tender age of eleven, when my family and I sat in our living room with our eyes glued to the television, and we watched the last flight of the Enterprise 1701 D into an artful background of sun and nebulae on the small screen. Star Trek: The Next Generation is still my favorite show, but there is no one more depressed than I am about the fact that there will be no more of it.
Other examples include: Heroes, which turned to crap after the mesmerizing first season. Doctor Who, it will never be the same – no, really, it won’t.
That’s why the main requirement of being a fan is unfailing, sometimes obsessive love.But even after all of that, it’s hard not to wallow in despair at times.
Sometimes we as fans just need a more solid ground to stand on.There is one thing in this entire universe that I know will never fail me.It’s a person actually, and his name is Bear Grylls.Perhaps you’ve heard of him?
I have to stop everything and give a shout-out to my little brother Wade. He joined the Marines this past summer and is currently kicking ass and taking names in everything they're teaching him.
He also just got engaged. And his fiancee is ridiculously hot.
So congratulations on all your success, Wade. Kudos on the engagement, and "me may foff" to you (don't worry - that phrase won't make sense unless we're related, so no, you aren't going crazy). And great taste in engagement rings, too. Many thumbs up.
Here's an absolutely awesome send-up of Lady Gaga's Poker Face, complete with hot, dancing boy nerds. Hope it sends you into the weekend with a smile on your face. Certainly did the trick for me!
I promise I'm not paid by NBC to pimp their stuff. They just happen to be doing things lately that make me grin. Yeah, they shafted their entire Law & Order franchise, replacing it in its lucrative timeslot with the Big-Chinned Anti-Funny (BCAF for short). But they did order a full season of Community. 30 Rock and The Office are still funny. (I love how 30 Rock consistently and blatantly makes fun of the BCAF.) In general, NBC managed to slowly drag itself out of the black hole I'd placed it in when it canceled Life instead of the soul-suckingly bad Heroes.
But now is the winter of our discontent moment I must ask you, my fellow geeks, to rally around NBC with all the noise you can make. Bust out your Nielson rating box, your blogosphere CAPSLOCK OF TEH SQUEE, and keep your eyes open for a new show called Rex is Not Your Lawyer. (Being the faithful and internet-combing nerds that you are, I'm sure you know about this...but I have to ask the cheesy question and then give the answer with stars and the capslock of teh squee. Will you forgive me? I knew you would.)
"Beatrice, why should we watch this show as if our very lives depended on it?" you ask.
Well, my fine friends, for one reason only:
*~*DAVID TENNANT IS IN IT!!*~*
Whew. There. I feel better.
I love my America the Beautiful, but it is such a pain to have to illegally download wait for the DVDs in order to watch my beloved Doctor. It's so lame to wait and skulk and watch it on a small screen with lame sound quality. "Gee," I thought. "Wouldn't it be awesome if David Tennant would come and get really famous over here so that I could see his shows and movies whenever I wanted? He could be a guest on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson!!" Imagine my joy when I read about this new pilot.
Tennant will star as Rex, a top Chicago litigator who becomes so crippled by anxiety that he takes to coaching his clients into representing themselves.
The possibilities are thrilling. He'll play a lawyer, so....will we get Nerdy David? Mmmm. That's nice. Will we get Comedy David? Dramedy David? David With Glasses? David with a Great Ensemble Cast? Hot David? (of course!) Passionate and Soulful David? David in a Brown Pin-striped Suit? (Sonic Screwdriver is optional.) I get shivers just thinking of it!
No matter how it plays out, I hope for a stellar pilot so that we get to keep David on TV here in the US. It would be nice if he were slightly unshaven and Scottish in the pilot (see visual aid above), but I'll take what I can get.
We'll keep you updated on the WHEN of this story. So far we don't have an air date for this show, but we're hoping for Fall of 2010. Until then you can catch David in the UK as he begins his Doctor Who swan song: The Waters of Mars airs November 15th at 7:00 PM on BBC1.
You read that correctly, my friends. Imagine my glee when I was surprised one evening with the gift of....
Trust me...I lived on nothing but Star Trek waffles and syrup for the next two days. Literally. I must say that Spock, be he of the Nimoy or Quinto variety, is quite delicious when smothered in maple syrup. Should Eggo decide to make breakfast food out of any other hotties, I will gladly volunteer to taste test.
Or, you know, if anyone needs to conduct an experiment to see if hot men are worthy of breakfast status without the pesky waffles in the way, well....I suppose I can make that sacrifice. For science, you see.
Whilst watching GI Joe, which made my brain hurt on many levels, I began to ponder who the hell decides which actors are the new hunks for the season. Apparently, whatever his name is who was the lead in GI Joe is the New Dreamboat. Not only did I not understand it, but I distracted myself from the rest of the movie by trying to figure it out and going over other supposed "dreamboats" in my mind. Of course, there have been many, but I don't see the attraction for the grand majority of them.
Channing Tatum - Apparently, this is GI Joe Guy's name. He's 25, and he looks like every generic hair horned douche with whom I attended high school. Seriously - I could go to Facebook right now and pull up so many current photos of former classmates that are dead ringers for this man. I'm sure the guy's got a great body, but you can find those on tons of other actors - many of whom have probably never appeared in Step Up 2: The Streets.
We're outspoken, opinionated women. Some of us like men, and not only for their brains. Therefore it's only natural that we should review 
I was looking forward to seeing The Crazies for a long, long time. For those not already aware, this incarnation of the film is actually a remake of a version released in 1973. It's been moved from Pennsylvania to Iowa, but it is, in fact, a remake.
