Some comics to film -my thoughts.

[haven't been arsed to spell check etc - sorry!]

Captain America – July 2011

I have grown to like this character more over the last few years (due to the 'Death of' story arc-lol). I don't think any stars have been cast at the time of writing, although I think that Matthew McC is perfect in looks for the part – whether he can act is another matter. Apparently the setting will be WWII and as such it is likely to be an origin story of sorts. Personally I would prefer a contempary storyline with the back story written in over a number of films (possibly even including the Avengers movie). More to follow on this.

Green Lantern – June 2011

Massively keen on this. Huge GL fan and of course big Hal Jordan fan. I have to say I was surprised that Ryan Reynolds was cast as Hal. For me he would be better fitted as Kyle Raynor, but I guess if it is going to be an origins story (and therefore a young hal), then it does makes sense that you have a young actor. As a general premise for a movie it could be awesome. Personally I would like to see Hal go bad (Parallex) and again have a back story run in the, well background. However not sure non-comic audiences are ready for that yet. So instead audiences will learn about an alien that fell to earth and bestowed a powerful ring unto a human. The said ring allows the weilder to command the ring to his willpower. Awesome stuff (yes my mental age is close to 8).

Blade Prequel

Cool. A film or films surrounding Deacon Frost from the first movie. Could work? will Wesley make an appearance? Proabably won't happen though.

The Boys

One of the few non Marvel or DC comics I really like. It is not for everyone and certainly some of the antics of the 'Boys' and indeed the heroes that they are regulating are beyond ridiculous – but it is good fun. If they do make a film, you hope Simon Pegg is in it as the character 'wee hughie' is famously based on him (although another film for him to do a scottish accent?) . If he were to appear in it, it would definitely add some curiousity to the release.

The Flash

Another character that I am really into at the moment. I am loving Geoff Johns' Flash: Rebirth, which sees the return of Barry Allen. He is of course playing a central role alongside Hal Jordan in Blackest Night currently (which is also awesome, if not a little complicated). Anyway if a Flash film is made, there are plenty of options on which direction to go. Geoff Johns, I understand has been hired by Warner Bros and baring in mind his understanding of the subject matter -and his passion -a film could be well receivd.



Thor.

Honestly? Not sure what to think about this one. I have never been a massive fan of Thor although I have always thought there was potential. A Norse God who wanders earth? The god of Thunder who fights alongside the Avengers? It is going to be a tough one to write. Similarly to Captain America I would love to see this set in the contemporary world as opposed to some parallel universe. Don't get me wrong, some back story showing Valhala or equivalent. Kenneth Brannagh has signed up for directing duties which may be or may not be a bad thing – it could be amazing – shakespearian and operatic. Or it could be pants. Time will tell. Some dude called Chris Hemsworth is playing the main man. Then you have Natalie Portman playing the love interest and Brian Blessed as Odin (inspired). I will be keeping a watchful eye over this.



Avengers – May 2012

Very....very.....very excited about the prospects of this film. In theory (it hasn't been made yet) this will do for Marvel what the prspect of a Justice League Movie would have done for DC – revolutionise the movie/character/comic industry. I make no excuses for the fact that I prefer DC to Marvel, but there are some great Marvel characters and story arcs out there. More recently, my Marvel reading has involved the Avengers or the Ultimates. For many, the prospect of putting a number of 'key' characters in a movie has attracted some serious interest. I have always loved cross-overs – whether it was movies, music, tv or comics (hasselhoff turning up in the new Knight Rider for instance !) But can a film that potentially contains – Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the Hulk really be something special. Firstly, if you can get the same actors who played the characters in the original movies, that is a cool start. Ed Norton is thus far the only concern there. Second, it would be awesome if some secondary charcaters made appearances (again with actors who can play that character in an original film if deemed appropriate or indeed who made appearances in the respective warm up movies – Black Widow and War Machine being two characters that come to mind). Thirdly, if they take the Ultimates story material and work with that then I think we could be onto a winner. With Samuel L Jackson playing Nick Fury and signing up for a 12 movie deal or something ridiculous, it would suggest that there are elemenst of the Ultimates that will be incoprorated (in the avnegers Nick Fury is white. In the Ultimates, he is black, based on Samuel L Jackson originally). In the Ultimates, the characters are more hardcore – they seem to take more enjoyment in their work -i.e. kicking some ass. Captain America can sometimes be a bit of a pussy – rarely in the Ultimates – although he did get his ass handed to him in the latest Ultimates run – which is very cool by the way. Personally I wuld like to see a very cool Ultimates Hawkeye in the Avengers and Hank Pym for comedy. This is definitely a space to watch.

Due 01/10/09

Batman Widening Gyre #2 (Of 6)
Blackest Night Titans #2 (Of 3)
Green Lantern #46 Blackest Night
Last Days Of Animal Man #5 (Of 6)

Batman Giant

sweet.

Standing Order 24th September

Quiet this week:

Detective Comics #857
Blackest Night Superman #2 (Of 3)
Spider-Woman #1
Wednesday Comics #12 (Of 12)

Outstanding Standing Order!

3rd September(4th due to Bank Holiday)

Batman #690
Justice League Cry For Justice #3 (Of 7)
Wednesday Comics #9 (Of 12)


10th September

Blackest Night Batman #2 (Of 3)
Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men Exodus DAX
Green Lantern Corps #40 (Blackest Night)
Marvels Project #2 (Of 8)
Red Robin #4
Ultimate Comics Avengers #2
Wednesday Comics #10 (Of 12)


17th September

Dark Avengers #9
Batgirl #2
Batman And Robin #4
Batman Streets Of Gotham #4
Blackest Night #3 (Of 8)
Captain America Reborn #3 (Of 5)
Wednesday Comics #11 (Of 12)

Apple - Yawn!

I have been meaning to write about this for some time and following a number of recent conversations with friends, I think I am good to go.

Apple products are undoubtedly wonderful to look at. They have been for some time and with the advent of the ipod, Apple have really launched themselves as a technology developer worthy of battling Microsoft. Before I go any further, I want it to be clear that apart from a short stint as a journalist after leaving University, I have never worked on a Mac. Yes I have played on them in store and mucked about with them, but I have never owned one. I have always been a PC man and still am.

A number of years ago I was having a conversation with a good friend about technology (we were both technology lawyers at the time), so it did make sense. Anyway I was talking about the wonders of my first mp3 player, a Rio. I loved it. It was 32MB (yes MB). If you wanted you could upgrade it to 64MB (I never did). Well I loved that little machine. It held an album (just). If it was 12 tracks on the album then I had to reduce the quality, otherwise 10 tracks at decent quality would do. I would plug it into my PC in the morning before going to work and select the essential tracks for the day. It was amazing. No carrying around CD's or cassettes (although I did love cassettes). Well back to the conversation with my friend. He started to tell me about his new Apple mp3 player. It was called an ipod. It was 10GB. I laughed and used wholly inappropriate language. He was clearly lying to me. Either that or someone had slipped a dodgy drug into his beer (or mine). No matter he was telling the truth of course. A large white encased hard drive with a grey scale screen. A socket at the top for your headphones and 10GB's worth of your tunes. Sounded amazing. And of course my little Rio was never the same again, although I did continue using it for some time. At that stage I couldn't get an ipod. It only worked with Apple computers and I wasn't going to change just for that.

So my little Rio made do until Apple announced that they were releasing an ipod that could be used with a PC. Shock horror. Hardcore apple fans were not happy. PC fans were wondering what all the fuss was about and then there were people like me who were very exited. By this point they had already moved on considerably from the 10GB 1st generation my friend had. I purchased a white 3rd generation 20GB (they only did them in white). I remember when it first arrived – the excitement. The possibilities. It went everywhere with me. It had buttons on the fascia that back-lit.I still have it. It still works, although it is a bit bashed up. I remember becoming a statesman for ipods. I got strange looks from friends and colleagues. But they were jealous. They had heard rumblings of ipods. Is that an mp3 player? Anyway, Apple attempted to do what Microsoft had with their Windows operating system – an ipod in every home. And most people I know have one now – different colours, shapes, sizes.

But here is the crunch, Apple are considered a future contender to Microsoft for personal computing – not true! It will never happen. Apple know this. They admitted defeat the minute they allowed the ipod to work on a PC. It was a choice. And to be fair it has worked in so far as the mp3 market is wrapped up. Occasionally someone will turn their back on PC's and buy a mac. But the war was lost.

A good friend of mine (tweet davidvonce) has just purchased a new Mac Book Pro (and subsequently an iphone - which is a different story) and is clearly in love with it - the Mac Book Pro (slightly wrong). A big song and dance was made about Boot Camp and how you could run Windows on your Mac. Yet again, Apple seem to be admitting defeat and doing enough to encourage you to convert but still encouraging you to use Windows. Is this because you are limited on a Mac? Is it because you can't play decent games on a Mac? is it because the majority of programmes for Mac are made by Mac and not third parties?

Don't get me wrong, I like the look of the products, but I like the option to change my PC. I can change the hardware to my 'personal' needs. I can change the software to my 'personal' needs. My desktop looks like a Mac, icons and layout – but happily it isn't. If Apple hadn't made ipods available to PC's, I might now be an apple user and wouldn't be writing this on the brilliant ASUS EEE – but that's another blog for another time.

iTunes 'wish list'

I got all excited about the wish list function in iTunes (hadn't noticed it before) and found that for TV series/programmes that are still airing, wish list doesn't work. How annoying is that? rubbish.