SuperSearnold - Comic Book Reviews

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Saturday, November 22nd, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Today I have another special treat for you. My friend Robert has purchased the Hellboy II Special Edition DVD and wants to talk to you all about what it has to offer and whether or not it’s worth your money. Check out September 7th, 2008 for my review of the movie itself. But without any further ado, here’s what Robert has to say:

The Movie:
Hellboy II is a natural evolution of the story from the first movie. Almost all of the original cast returns except Rupert Evans (Agent Myers). He was the audience’s perspective as the only normal person in a cast of “freaks,” but really he wasn’t needed in this movie. The opening scene with Hellboy as a child in the fifties with his dad (John Hurt) is pure movie magic. The story of the Golden Army and the Elves is slightly reminiscent of Lord of The Rings. A race of Elves whose time on earth is done created a magical army designed to destroy man. This makes me wonder if Guillermo del Toro was using this as a warm up for The Hobbit. The creature design of monsters and the Troll Market borrow some of the styling from Pan’s Labyrinth. From the story, to the sets, to the acting, you get a very engrossing movie that makes you feel like you’re being shown a world that actually exists somewhere, and leaves you wanting more. Everything you loved from the first movie is in this movie and so much more.

The DVD’s:
The movie came in two retail configurations. The basic DVD for $14.99 and the three disc special edition for $22.99. So, you ask, what do you get in the special edition?

Disc one: You get quite a lot of swag with the first disc. You get two commentary tracks, one with Guillermo del Toro and one with cast members (not Ron Perlman though). You also get seven set visits. These visits are short 5-10 minute video diary shoots of a scene. They don’t offer too much in the way of depth, but it is sometimes funny to see what a scene consists of. For example, you get to see behind-the-scenes for the fight between Hellboy and Wink in the Troll Market. The funny part of that is watching Wink who needs a fan to blow air into his mouth between takes. Also notable is the giant arm holding the golden egg that the prince throws to release the Forrest Elemental. Movie magic is sometimes just funny looking behind the scenes. This first disc also contains an animated comic that is an epilogue for the movie. Finally included are 6 deleted scenes. All of which are more like scene extensions than new scenes.

Disc two: This disc starts off with a prologue from Guillermo del Toro which includes a very in depth look at the production of the movie titled “In the Service of the Demon.” You get 19 chapters that take you from the beginning concepts all the way to the voice overs. It’s several hours of movie goodness and behind the scenes tidbits. Along with a postlude where Toro gives credit to Mike Mignola. Which is a real treat, because you don’t often get directors having such a close relationship with the creators, and you can tell that Toro really respects what Mignola created. The rest of the disc has numerous other goodies. “The Production Workshop” is a look into the puppet sequence showing the creation of the Golden Army with story board artwork running on top of the scene. The “Pre-Production Vault” contains the director’s notebook and a gallery. The notebook has some copies of Toro’s notebook that he used to make notes and sketches of characters and scenes. Along the way, there are some icons that take you into the scenes that are being shown in the notebook with narrative provided by Toro. The gallery section includes, well, galleries. Mignola’s Gallery has voice over by Mignola himself, but otherwise it’s all just standard stills. Another one of the galleries gives you a look at the marketing campaign for the movie. Some cool posters, but no media promotions were included. Lastly, there is a DVD-ROM feature to allow you to print the script of the movie.

Disc 3: The third disc is simply the digital transfer copy. As with The Hulk (see the review of THAT DVD on Thursday, November 13th, 2008), you can copy Hellboy II as a Windows file or QuickTime. But again, no PSP support. However, unlike The Hulk, you get a larger actually viewable picture on the iPod. The gig price tag is a little higher, though, at 1.37.

All and all if you want to save some cash and don’t want to waste two days on in depth special features then the single disc is a better buy. But if you want to forget having a social life for a couple of days and learn how a movie is made, then the three disc is for you.

That’s it for today. A special thanks to Robert for letting us all know about this DVD. As always - thank you for reading - I’ll see you tomorrow. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Saturday, November 15th, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Today’s Movie:
Since I’ve been on a movie kick recently, and since last night premiered the best movie I’ve seen in quite some time, I figured I’d go ahead and do a review of Quantum of Solace – the new Bond movie. This one stars Daniel Craig (Archangel, Golden Compass) and was directed by Marc Forster (Stranger than Fiction, Finding Neverland).

Premise:
This movie is an immediate sequel to Casino Royale. It takes place just moments after Casino Royale ended and includes the return of many of the same characters. In Quantum of Solace, Bond is going after the big bad organization that was responsible for the death of the woman he loved.

Awesome Parts:
Where do I start? And how do I talk intelligibly without using generalities and without giving away any spoilers? The movie was an incredibly great action movie. It had awesome action scenes. Daniel Craig makes an awesome Bond. He feels like a real person. They’ve done a great job of modernizing the story so that it feels relevant to today’s world. There were twists that I didn’t see coming – which is really saying something for an action movie, which are normally very similarly structured. I really liked the fact that there was the immediate villain and the larger organization of villains. And that there was the ‘protecting the world’ motivation for stopping the villains, but also a personal stake for Bond. Overall, it comes down to the fact that this was just an enjoyable movie.

Un-Awesome Parts:
I know this paragraph looks long, but it’s not because I didn’t enjoy the movie. It’s because I’m feeling nit-picky today. Look closely at the first fight scene. If you’re familiar with CG, you’ll probably be able to tell that all of the shots that didn’t actually have a person in them were complete CG shots. While the CG was good, I would have rather seen an actual construction rig. A part of me appreciates the sequel aspect of this movie – continuing into a broader tale – but it felt to me that you would have HAD to have seen Casino Royale for parts of Quantum of Solace to make sense. Any returning characters received absolutely no introductions, and it was assumed we already knew who the bad guys were. I know this is a bit of stretch to even mention this – but it bothered me so I’m going to say it. There was a parachute scene, and the chute was released almost an entire second before hitting the ground. Almost. There is NO WAY that it would have allowed the person in the chute to land safely. I wasn’t able to suspend disbelief for that moment. And this is a general note about most spy movies – but there were aspects of it in Quantum of Solace: why can’t spies ever play nice together? Even spies working for the same government never seem to tell each other what they’re planning. Which means they can’t help each other and thusly get into far more difficult shenanigans than necessary. Finally, I’m not a fan of the quick cut action scenes. I was glad they didn’t use this for the whole movie – but the first car chase scene cut so often that it felt far less awesome than I think it could have been.

My Recommendation:
Oh yes – absolutely worth seeing. In fact, I recommend ignoring all of my nit-picking and enjoying the Hell out of yourself during this movie. First of all, it’s a thrill ride. If you like action films, you’ll like Quantum of Solace. Just make sure you watch Casino Royale first. I’m even going to go so far as to recommend that you see this film in theaters because of two brand new very awesome previews for the upcoming Watchmen and Star Trek movies.

Alright - that’s all my rambling for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow for Final Crisis - Submit. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Friday, November 14th, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Today’s Movie:
The Incredible Hulk - 2008 version. This movie stars Edward Norton and Liv Tyler and was directed by Louis Leterrier. It was recently released on DVD. If you want an explanation about why the Special Edition DVD isn’t worth your money, go ahead and keep reading down to yesterday’s entry. Today, I’m going to talk about the movie itself.

Premise:
Well… for those of you who somehow don’t know… there’s this scientist guy named Bruce Banner. And when he gets angry he turns into a giant green monster called The Hulk. In this particular adventure, Bruce is trying to rid himself of The Hulk inside him, and the army is trying to get their hands on Bruce to use him as a weapon.

Awesome Parts:
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. And that is in stark contrast with the fact that I thoroughly HATED the 2003 Hulk movie. One of my favorite parts of the new version was the introductory credits which was a nice montage of Liv Tyler and Edward Norton reinacting some of the scenes from Hulk’s origin. It was ambiguous enough that those who want to consider this a direct sequel with different actors can - but those who want to completely shrug off the Ang Lee version were given a nice succinct introduction to Hulk’s origin. Also - Edward Norton is a phenomenal actor. He played Banner so well - and that’s what I’ve always liked about this character. Banner’s struggle with his anger is a timeless human struggle. So I’m glad that this movie focused on that instead of on Hulk smashing things. But Hulk did get to smash a lot of things - and when he did, it was pretty bad-ass. The movie had a nice original plot that clearly drew from the comics without simply directly adapting a previously written story. There was a great blend of suspense, action, and even a little romance for those who are into that sort of thing. I was never bored while watching the film - I never even had to check my watch. And Robert Downey Jr.’s cameo as Tony Stark at the end of the movie was a great way to seal the deal.

Un-Awesome Parts:
I’ve noticed something interesting with movies. If you like a movie, you go away remembering the great parts, and the bad parts fade from your memory. But if you didn’t enjoy a movie, you tend to focus on why you didn’t have any fun, and you’ll forget any great moments that the movie might have had. Take The Dark Knight, for example. It was such a spectacular movie with so many great things to talk about, that nobody focuses on the less-than-awesome parts (like Bat-Sonar, yuck!) The same thing happened for me with this incarnation of The Hulk. I enjoyed the experience of watching this movie. So now, all I remember are the reasons why I enjoyed it – and picking out the bad aspects from the recesses of my mind is quite a difficult task.

I do remember this much: the pacing of the climax was odd. It’s hard to talk about this intelligibly without giving away some pretty hard-core spoilers – so let’s just say they finally resolved one of the core conflicts of the movie, but it only stayed resolved for a few minutes before a new problem arrived. The CORE problem of any movie isn’t supposed to be resolved until the VERY end, or the pacing will feel off. We’re so used to movie conventions and the traditional pacing of a three act story that deviating too far from that structure will feel off – even if we can’t quite explain why.

My Recommendation:
Anyone who likes the Hulk will probably enjoy this movie. It was a great homage to the character. But you don’t need to know ANYTHING about him in order for this to be a good movie. The concept of the character is simple enough and explained well enough in the film that you needn’t have ever read a comic book for the movie to be enjoyable and make sense. If you’ve ever had anger problems, you’ll probably be able to relate to the character struggles in the movie. And if you just like semi-unrealistic (meaning impossible to happen in our boring-ass real world) action scenes of military tanks being ripped in twain, then this movie is definitely for you. Don’t see it for the love story, though. That aspect isn’t strong enough to carry the film.

However, as much as I recommend you see this movie, the Special Edition DVD is not worth your money. Read on and my friend Robert will tell you why.

Greetings – once again – from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Today is Thursday, November 13th, 2008. Welcome to my daily comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in! Are you interested in a comic book but not sure you want to shell out the cash? Let me know and I’ll review it for you – letting you know if it’s worth your hard earned money!

Today’s my 100th post! Hooray! To celebrate, today’s entry features a very special guest writer - my friend Robert. He’s here to tell you all why the Hulk Special Edition DVD isn’t worth your money. Let’s see what he has to say:

The Hulk is back and this time he is brought to you by an all new cast and a brand new director (Louis Leterrier). This movie was far better than the original (Ang Lee) 2003 version. It’s everything the first movie should’ve been, but in 24 less minutes. Even though this new Hulk is a complete retelling, it is technically the second story in what will hopefully turn into a successful series of movies. Louis Leterrier pays homage to the comic (especially Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Hulk: Gray) as well as to the TV series with Bill Bixby. He uses some the same catch phrases (“You won’t like me when I’m angry”), some of the same machines in the opening sequence (which quickly retells the Hulk’s origin), and the use of green contacts when Edward Norton turns into the Hulk. And of course the appearances of Lou Ferrigno (once again as a security guard) and Stan Lee.

The real purpose of this review is for the DVD’s themselves. The Hulk comes in two retail configurations, the basic DVD for $14.99 and the three disc special edition for $22.99. So, you ask, what do you get in each? Well, the cheaper DVD comes with only one disc. You get six deleted scenes and feature commentary by Louis Leterrier and Tim Roth.

The three disc set comes with one disc of special features. You get four more deleted scenes and five featurettes. Also on that disc is the highly talked about alternate opening with The Hulk in the arctic. Now some people have said that you can see Captain America in the ice and some say you can see his shield come out of the ice. But I challenge anyone to positively point either out!

The third disc of the special edition DVD is the digital transfer copy. It allows you to put the movie on your PC or MAC using either Media Player or QuickTime. This will allow you to put it on your iPod Classic. Now the only problem with this is that the film is shown in “letter boxed” format on the iPod, so you get a little under an inch of viewable movie. Be prepared for a headache in 20 minutes or less and don’t even try to read the subtitles. And neither transfer of the movie will allow you to watch it on the PSP.

In all, the three disc set is NOT worth the extra $8. The featurettes are not very in depth or revealing. The alternate opening is worthless and really doesn’t seem to fit into the story at all. The digital transfer copy takes up 1.28 gigs of hard drive space and the viewable size is too small to really watch comfortably. If you could put it on the PSP, or if the featurettes had a little more depth, or if they included a little more of comic material in it, then maybe the special edition DVD would be worth it. But they didn’t, so save your money.

Alright - that’s everything for today. As always - thanks for reading - see you tomorrow. And don’t forget to let me know if there are any comic books you’d like me to review for you – I take requests!
-Searnold, SuperSearnold@yahoo.com www.myspace.com/SuperSearnold

Greetings from your friendly neighborhood Searnold [Shár- Nŭhld]. Welcome to my comic book review blog – thanks for tuning in. Today is Thursday, September 25th, 2008.

Today’s Issue:
Okay – it’s not an “issue” per say, so much as it’s a movie. It’s a comic book movie though, so it’s okay. Specifically - it’s Iron Man. I figure I’d give it a review to celebrate its release to DVD.

Premise:
Just in case there has been some sort of odd rift in space/time and you aren’t aware of the premise of Iron Man, there’s a billionaire playboy named Tony Stark who creates a super high tech battle suit and becomes a super hero. The details obviously get a bit more complex - but that’s all you really need to know.

The Awesome Parts:
I loved this movie. So obviously my biases are going to shine through in the review. But I’ll try to think of a few REASONS why the movie was so enjoyable and talk about them objectively. First of all, Robert Downey Jr. is an excellent actor. He captured exactly the image of Tony Stark as I have always imagined him while reading the comic books. He was hilarious while still being serious. He had real vices, but always sought to overcome them. He felt like a real person – even though he’s a super genius billionaire industrialist who owns a weapons manufacturing company and runs around in a high tech battle suit fighting terrorists. I felt the modern adaptation of this story that was written in 1963 was true to the core of the story while not feeling out of date or far fetched for modern audiences. As much as I miss the character Jarvis, having a digital butler was a great touch. Another great part were the special effects. I actually had a friend who worked on the effects for this movie (great job Michael Lester!) The suit looked bad-ass. Everything felt natural and believable. The plot developed naturally out of the characters and their situations. There was great (yet still subtle) sexual tension. It was a wonderfully written and excellently executed film.

The Un-Awesome Parts:
I don’t like the fact that the director – John Favreau – cast himself as Happy Hogan. I’ve never been a fan of the nepotism rule. And while it didn’t matter because of Happy’s small role in this film – I would love to see Happy have larger roles in future Iron Man films, which I imagine would be difficult to accomplish while he’s busy directing. I also had problems with the flashback that they used in the film. The film had a beginning, flashed back to 24 hours earlier, and then resumed. I didn’t see ANY good reason for that flashback. We could have started the movie at the beginning – 24 hours ago – and it would have been just as good. We all knew Tony was going to get captured by terrorists – we’ve all seen the previews. You don’t need to show that scene at the beginning of the movie to build up the suspense. I think there would have actually been better suspense if we DIDN’T know when he was going to get captured, but just had it sprung on us.

My Recommendation:
I want to look at this from the perspective of two types of people: Iron Man comic book fans and everyone else. For Iron Man comic book fans I think this movie will be a thrill ride. You get to see and hear Iron Man – and it looks and sounds like Iron Man. The adaptation was incredible. Everything was very close to the comic books – and there are secret treasures hidden in the film for those of us who catch the references (the name of the terrorist group is The Ten Rings – a reference to Iron Man villain The Mandarin.) From the perspective of everyone else, this is just a GREAT action movie. If you only like romantic comedies, then obviously this movie is not that. But don’t be biased against this movie because it’s a “super hero” film. It is an ACTION film. And it is a well made action film. And it is just as good as any non-super-hero action film. There are incredible battle scenes with some incredibly bad-ass fights. The special effects are stunning. There’s humor to relieve the dramatic tension – which escalates in a natural way to an inevitable climactic battle which Iron Man seems sure to lose. If you enjoy movies like Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, The Fugitive, Men In Black, or Independence Day, then you should enjoy Iron Man.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow I’ll be reviewing the premiere of the new season of Heroes. As always – thanks for reading – see you tomorrow.
-Searnold