Movie Review: X-Men: The Last Stand

Anger. All I feel is anger right now. Honestly, I can’t believe what I’ve just watched. It’s like I fell asleep in the theatre and had a nightmare about what the X-Men movie might turn out to be. Then I realized that I wasn’t dreaming - this was real.

Instead, it was no dream. What is it? It’s about X-Men fans like me, who’ve line up to see what is supposed to be the best X-Men movie ever, only to walk into a theatre in which the director, Brett Ratner, and screenwriter Zak Penn, whip out their dicks and pisses on the fans. It’s also Fox saying “Hey, thanks for helping to make the first two movies hits, fanbase. Now politely fuck off. We’re done with you.” It’s also about a group of people, who gave us such great cinematic sex with the second film, just to roll us over, go all Brokeback Mountain, then finish us off with a wasted cum shot of an ending. That’s what X-Men: The Last Stand is.

And no, I’m not overreacting. I wanted to like it. I really did. For those of you who aren’t X-Men fans let me point out to you that earlier reviews had already doomed this movie before it was even released. I read a lot and knew a lot going into, so I was slightly biased, but I just really wanted to chuck it up to just internet buzz and rumors, but as the release date got closer, the early screening reviews came out and they were anything, but kind. Anything that you’ve read from people who are familiar with not only the franchise, but the comic books in general are pretty much spot on depending upon what you are looking for in the film. As a film, completely separate of any type of fanbase or history – it’s simply mediocre. There are a few moments (and I stress the word moments) of greatness. A few brief glimpses of a good movie shining through the muck and haze that is this flaccid attempt at a sequel. Yes it made shit loads of money, but that’s not what makes a movie great.

It was a lame, pathetic grasp of a third film, not unlike Batman Forever or Superman 3 and never quite achieving the immortal crappy infamy that is the fourth installment of either of those series. It’s in those last 2 minutes of the film that kills. That’s where it all falls apart, and the lousy writing, the terrible direction that the producers chose for the series and ultimately the canned leadership of Ratner all boil up to the surface. Because not only do you realize that this is it, that’s all they’re doing with this film…but they have the brass balls to attempt to undo almost every major plot decision they made with the film to begin with towards the end. It’s positively surreal – as if they are saying “Heh, sure we did that. But we didn’t really mean it.” Besides making serious amounts of cash (The movie made box office history by having the highest Memoral Day Opening Weekend ever. at $107mm, beating out Jurassic Park 2, which held the record since 1997), fans of the book and fans of the movie flocked to see it over the weekend. However, there’s so much here to hate - I have to address this point by point.

First and foremost - still leaving fandom out of this – the film manages to avoid achieving any emotional connection with the audience at all. Every moment, but 3 that should connect emotionally simply doesn’t. Then, as they begin to kill characters off (and after awhile wholesale), it never feels like they’re actually killing characters off. It doesn’t matter whether you know these characters from years of comics or simply from the films you’ve seen them in. You do not for an instant feel the impact of their deaths. They just die, as if they were not even secondary characters you didn’t expect to make it all the way through the film anyway. And when all is said and done, you simply can’t believe they did it. “Really? They’re dead? Well, that just sucks!” And that’s all the emotion you can muster.

Frankly, I don’t know where entirely to place the blame here. As the story and writing are incredibly lax and the screenwriters are an unbelievable pedigree (between them, they are responsible for xXx: State of the Union, Behind Enemy Lines and Elektra. Elektra alone should have gotten Zak Penn banned from screenwriting for life. How, for fucks sake, do you write a movie with Ninjas that is that fucking boring?! And I liked Elektra the comic.) It feels as if they were simply handed a list of all the characters the producers wanted to show up in the film (anyone remember Mortal Kombat: Annihilation?) and they struggled magnificently against their combined lack of talent to find a way to work each one of them in – without actually developing a single one of them. (Why was Angel even this?) This film, at times, appears to be an endless stream of cameos that wants to appeal to the fanbase, without ever getting most of them right in any way, shape or form – thus alienating the fanbase entirely. Then can we blame Marvel execs also for letting this come to pass? Yup. Right in the fuckin eye we can.

But then Ratner comes in with their script, and takes what material should be good and directs it so flat that it almost becomes…no wait, strike that, it actually becomes…melodrama. The film sets up a love triangle without ever bothering to make it remotely emotional or even attempts to resolve it at all – as it rapidly devolves into a charismatic void that three young (and proven talented actors) can’t seem to pull above the level of a One Tree Hill episode. But like I said, he gets a few moments just right. Unfortunately, no one passed on to Ratner the GRAND SECRET OF MAKING A COMIC BOOK MOVIE.

Now here’s where I’m going to just getting downright fucking geeky. All the unbiased reviewing is over. From here on out, I’m going to become exactly the kind of nerd that you’ll hear about after watching this movie or during the movie. You see, there seems to be a well-kept secret about making super hero films. I say well-kept, because as obvious as it fucking seems, only Singer, Raimi, Nolan, del Toro, Donner and a few others seem to know it (this secret is also understood in the fantasy world by Jackson.) The secret is this. You can take material with a rabid fanbase – a fanbase so rabid in fact, that they’ll scream over and over again about canon, quoting it verbatim – then change fundamental parts of that canon (merging characters, getting histories and events wrong, ignoring backgrounds entirely) if, and only if, you get the soul of the character and the comic book right. There, that’s the secret. It’s out.

You see, comic books are at its core Mythology. And like any true Mythology it changes over time beyond the scope of the initial creators. In Classical Greek times, stories of the gods sprung up and merged together – often times with lesser gods of local areas being absorbed into the histories of what we know to be the major gods. In Christian Mythology, Hell and Lucifer had very little definition until Dante or perhaps John Milton came along with their fiction, and actually added to how people still today perceive these concepts. And people accepted it. Why? Because it made sense. While some of the facts may have been different, it stuck with all the major points people believed about these beings and further defined them in the minds of the audience. Well, it’s the same thing with comic books.

For many of us, comic books are our mythology. Here we have stories of deities, or beings possessed of great power – each with their own tragic flaw – that stand to represent some ideal and operate entirely within that framework. What is Superman but the indestructible embodiment of true, lawful, Boy Scout-like justice? What is the Batman but the embodiment of brain over brawn – a crafty being dedicated to vigilante justice and yet with equipped with a devotion that doesn’t involve killing? And who is Spider-Man but the embodiment of the youthful, dejected spirit granted great power, only to be forced to understand that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Comic books always have and always will be great morality plays, lessons wrapped in entertaining metaphor – just as early mythology and fables were. And to get it right when translating it to the screen, one need not stick to the facts, but rather to the soul, of what you’re adapting.

I mention Superman, Batman and Spider-Man for a reason. Look at the Original Superman. Look at Spider-Man. Look at Batman Begins. All three of them, every single one, ignores very important ‘facts’ about the history of each character. Hell, I remember when the original Superman came out, my friends who were fans, screamed about how it varied from the comic’s storyline. But after a while, they shut the hell up. Why? First of all, it was a great fucking film. Secondly, and most importantly – they got Superman right. They got the Clark Kent right. They got Lois Lane right. It was absolutely, without a doubt, a true Superman story. How about Spider-Man? Organic webshooters, a mechanical Green Goblin suit, no Gwen Stacy? Sound familiar? Sure things we can overlook. So why would we overlook those things as fans and why do we love the movie so? Because they got Peter right. They got Spider-Man right. And they focused on what made those two distinctly different (and yet the same) people tick. All three of these films are prime examples of exactly how an adaptation like this should be done. All treat the material as mythology – not simply something with an established fanbase.

Now the X-Men franchise has had a rocky history with this. I am not going to nitpick too much here. However, the first film got a couple of characters very, wrong (chiefly Rogue) - but then the second film came along, apologized, and got absolutely everything right. All of a sudden Wolverine actually was Wolverine. Nightcrawler was added and was spot on. And despite the changes they made to canon, they managed to get Rogue back on track (sure, Rogue never dated Iceman – but they got the ill-fated romance angle of her character perfect.) Bryan Singer got the X-Men right. And just to top it off, as if a perfect X-Men movie weren’t enough…they gave us that final shot of the film. You all know what shot I’m talking about. The Promise. The Promise of the single most kick ass X-Men story ever told put in the hands of the people that got the X-Men right - The Dark Phoenix Saga.

Go ahead call me crazy. I don’t give a fuck. I am fanboy and a big one. I’ve been collecting and reading the X-Men and every incarnation since 1984. So I take movies being made from the things that I love very seriously. The Dark Phoenix Saga is arguably one of the top five best runs of a comic book ever. The thing is epic. It has everything. Love, jealousy, betrayal, intrigue, sacrifice. It’s practically Shakespearian in scope. And honestly, it would be an impossible film to do as canon. I know this. No one expected canon with this film. Fuck the Shi’ar. Hell, fuck the Corsairs and outer space entirely. Frankly, I don’t think there’s a fan out there that expected the classic continuity. But few expected this. I know I sure didn’t. Now I’m not going to say that they did the Phoenix Saga wrong – because they didn’t. In fact, they didn’t do the Phoenix Saga at all. Not a bit of it. No Hellfire Club, no Black King, no White Queen, no corruption of Jean Grey, no possession, nothing of the original storyline at all. Sure, everyone calls Jean Grey The Phoenix – but she’s not. In the Last Stand, she’s just Super Jean Grey. The phoenix isn’t some cosmic force or supernatural being in the movie. Jean Grey didn’t possess Earth shattering powers that can consume whole planets and made her teammates afraid of her. And why not? It would have worked. Their explanation of her manifestation was so contrived; you had no choice but to believe it because they didn’t give you a chance to think about it. You kinda go, “Okay.” It’s just a personality disorder. For fuck’s sake - a personality disorder?! There were select elements from the Dark Phoneix Saga used in this movie and honestly, it wasn't enough.

We never even for one second see her manifest the Phoenix force. Seriously guys. That shadow we saw underwater at the end of X2? That’s the closest you will ever get to seeing the Phoenix Force. No fiery bird shape surrounding Jean. According to X3, Jean Grey is just really, really powerful, and despite having the ability to read the minds of anyone at all, while possessing the ability to disintegrate people with a thought – she’s more than happy to simply follow around Magneto and be his goon for no apparent reason. In fact, for most of the second half of the film, all she does is stand around and look menacing while Magneto keeps dropping hints that she is his secret weapon (that she seems far too oblivious to pick up on.) That’s your precious Phoenix Saga. That’s as close as you’re ever going get to it on the screen.

And that’s what absolutely pissed me the hell off. What began as simply a mediocre comic book movie ended when I realized “Holy shit! We’re never actually going to get The Phoenix. The promise will never be fulfilled.” Consider this the beginning of another in a long line of cinematic ‘what ifs?’ “What if Bryan Singer had been allowed to do his Phoenix Saga film? What would that have been like?” Sadly, we’ll never know.

What makes matters worse is that as the film draws to a close, you realize how much of what happened - but didn’t ever feel real - actually was real. Those characters were really dead. Other characters really lost their powers. Several storylines were all done at once ensuring they could never be done properly. That was it. That’s all we got. But remember that wasted cumshot statement I made earlier? No, that wasn’t just an insult to the filmmakers. No, instead, we’re treated to a wrap up that begins to unravel virtually everything – that only adds insult to injury. It begins to say “Hey, remember that dead character. Maybe they’re not really dead. Remember all those people who lost their powers. Maybe their powers will come back.” What? Seriously? Fuck you!” You hit us with lame emotional resonance, making decisions that will piss off fandom…and then you don’t even have the balls to stick to it?! You managed to make a film where the only definitives are the people you don’t want to bring back past their 3-picture deal. Yes, not only do they manage to make a spectacularly crappy movie – but then they can’t even own up to their crap.

Ultimately, X-Men: The Last Stand proves to be a colossal waste of effort and money on the film makers part, but arguably, it’s made all that money back and will continue to. All they accomplish is removing certain actors from the cast list and certain storylines from the pool they can draw from, if they ever choose to continue the series. And while that might bode well for the series as a whole (as thankfully, there are easily a dozen other X-Men stories that can be told), it makes for shitty filmmaking and a depressing end for several great characters (and I am not only mentioning Cyclops). Were this simply the first of the X-Men series, I might have simply disliked this film – or maybe even felt it mediocre. But it’s not. It comes on the heels of a perfect X-Men movie. We’ve seen that it can be done. This time it just wasn’t. Not even close. This could have been one of those great trilogies (i.e Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc.) we’ve gotten over the years, but it falls short of being 3 distinctly different interpretations of the same material.

But who the fuck am I kidding? I’m talking to X-Men fans (hopefully) and fans of the films in general. And as fans, you’re going to see this no matter how many people tell you it’s bad. You’ve gotta know for yourselves. And believe me. I understand – I’m the same way. But brace yourselves. It isn’t going to be pretty. Some will like it. Some will not. Some will love it. Some will not. You’ll decide, so don’t take my word for it.

The Fellowship to Philly Has Broken

Just when the stress couldn’t get any worse, Roger told me he has to cancel on this weekend as well. Which sucks completely. So it looks like yours truly has to go all Frodo and destroy this ring alone. I really didn’t want to, because it would help with cost, but now it’s just insane that I have to do this by myself. It’s going to hurt monetarily and I am hoping that something good comes from this, because I am spending a lot of loot just to get there.

So that’s a about 3 cancellations, I can’t use my sister’s car any longer, so I have to hop on a Greyhound Saturday morning – solo. Things have not gone according to plan at all. I would've loved some support and people who would enjoy the show with me, but that won't happen now.

But I have to really concentrate and buckle down in the next few days to get this done. Page 1 is done and it’s not as cool as page 2 or 3 will be. Page 2 is nearly done, it’s more action, where page 1 was all set-up. I am making progress, but I’ve been bullshitting and now it’s hitting the wire. I might take a day off to finish them all.

I even had to take out the 12” super-posable Spider-Man I got as a birthday gift to help with getting some of the harder angles down on the poses. It’s got 67 points of articulation, so it’s the next best thing to having a real model. It’s great and will come in handy to draw from reference than using an ill-advised imagination.

Anyway, wish me the best. I am going to need to.

Dunkin' Donuts This Mornin'

This morning a co-worker and myself headed to the local Dunkin' Donuts on Court Street. It was really hot and we decided to get ice-coffee. It wasn't crowded at all and we got to ordering rather quickly. Then I heard a woman speaking behind me. I just thought it was some random woman with a friend. Turns out it was a homeless woman asking for change, however a little different. I've never really encounter the variety of female homeless person, it's been predominiately men. So I didn't count on her method of asking for change. She insisted that every guy online was "very attractive and had their own style" and thus "should have some spare change".

Just to be completely honest, I hate when people ask for money while you're getting food or purchasing something. It's not the best tactic to get money and I usually let them know, but I couldn't help but laugh at this because she came right up to me and told me I smelled nice and I looked good. She even went as far as telling my co-worker, "You better hold on to him miss, awww shucky ducky!" It garnered a few laughs from the patrons of the store, because she focused on me completely after saying little things about the other male customers online.

The homeless lady made my day. She still didn't get a dime from me though. I still held to my principals. =)

Internet Research Really Helps....I Think?

You never realize how much you don't know until you try to draw it. I noticed this particular skill that I didn't have when I was asked to draw a wooden cigar store indian from the comic script I have to prepare my pages on. Thinking to myself, I can draw that, I quickly saw that I could not draw a wooden cigar store indian. So I had to look online and sure enough, I found some pictures and found out how to draw a wooden indian.

Then I get to page two and I have to show various POVs and angles from inside a car, most notably a car hitting Fairchild from Gen 13. I am supposed to show the car, crashing into her, crumpling the car into a new shape and have the two people in the front seat to fly through the window, in a massive explosion. Basically, I have to draw a car and what it would like after hitting a pole or a tree.

Not an easy task.

So I hit the internet for some quick research as it is Monday and I have until Saturday for my submission date, so I don't have time to try and fake what I know. I did a google search on "pole crashes". The shit you find on the interent is staggering and that there's a website for truly everything. I found this picture on Car-Accidents.com.

Needless to say it helped considerably into really knowing what a car looks like after hitting a pole. I looked into the site some more and realized it's set up as a reminder and warning of auto wrecks accidental or intentional (i.e. the result of a DUI/DWI). This is some crazy shit. Clearly cars are made of tinfoil these days. Just thought I'd share.

Anyway, back to the drawing board.

Page one, a high school musical and saints from the boondocks

After a few days of not really getting dirty with my panel work, I am getting a serious session down tonight. I have to finish page 1. LOL. I know you're saying to yourself, "Dré, why isn't page one done yet?" Because I fuckin' procrastinate and have Adult ADD that's freakin' why! It's not my fault that season finales and series finales all are happening at the same time. They're all a distraction I know. I figured I can get some in tonight since I am not watching American Idol until Wednesday. I was going to watch Stephen King's Desperation, but I dunno yet. Then there's also the fact that High School Musical and The Boondock Saints are out on DVD today and I'm gonna get that. (I know my taste in films is so odd at times. It's like a gay/straight fight going on inside me.)

Also, page one isn't finished yet, because ultimately I am not happy with what I've done so far. It's not the professional quality I am going for or for that matter where it needs to be. I need it to be so blazin' that I outdo myself in many respects from previous work I've done. I am never really a perfectionist, but I have to push some serious creative limits with this. I know I'm being hard on myself, but I need to stand out amongst the rest. I have a legitimate chance to get somewhere from this. This didn't hit me until this morning when a really good layout hit me at once and here I am with not a pencil in sight.

So hopefully, I can get at least pencil breakdowns and full finished layout tonight. And at least unwind with either Halo 2 or a movie before bed.

Lazy Weekend

So yesterday after a somewhat wasted, lazy and interesting weekend, I got up and decided to at least get a page done for the talent search coming up. I completely wasted Saturday with watching stuff like Farscape and movies (Cry Wolf was good), then trying to finish levels in Black and hopped online to play with my clan members in Halo 2. (We rocked too!) Needless to say on Sunday, I didn’t wake up until 12:30, lollygagged for hot minute, talked Travis into being bad with food and decided to partake in a long-standing, Black people tradition to have friend chicken on a Sunday, so we grabbed some KFC off 5th Avenue.

Sunset Park was busy as it usually is on a nice day. On the way back, I had stopped by a local Game Stop and picked up a used copy of OZ Season 4, which I saw the day before while I was looking for Farscape DVDs. I had been craving OZ DVDs for the longest now, but they are usually over $60 bucks for like 8 episodes. So I never got them. Since Season 4 by comparison was the longest season with 16 episodes, and the price tag was $30, it was a fucking steal as Travis and I found out later trying to remember all the brilliant OZ episodes we’ve watched. So we plopped down in front of the TV, KFC in hand and proceeded to watch at least 3 episodes before I rolled over and started to draw.

The rest of the day is just distraction heavy:

I was supposed to hang out with Will for a creative day of drawing and chilling. That didn’t happen and he called to tell me that at least 3 times. He understood and we rescheduled for later in the week.

Gary called to tell me more about his break-up with his boyfriend he’d been seeing for a year. Turns out the dude started to question his sexuality after attending his church and broke it off with him. Gary seemed okay, but I can tell he was frazzled, because he’s never had this happen and it’s all very new to him. Not to mention he was almost done reading a book, by an author who’s infamous for penning stories surrounding DL men and their lives, E. Lynn Harris. And that didn’t help matters. He seems in good spirits though. Only time will tell.

My other friend Sergio has a serious problem in handling things himself. He can appear to be very sturdy and self-sufficient, but when it comes down to it he needs assistance in almost everything he does and I have to swoop in to help. If I don’t, I’ll just get annoyed and frustrated because he isn’t doing all he can to get it done and it usually is the simplest shit too. He makes me angry, but I love him anyway. Not too mention he calls me at least 6 times a day. You would think we were a couple, or I was his only friend, and at times I think that, but I am more accessible than the others are. I know he doesn’t mean to annoy, he’s a lonely guy and I am the most stable thing he has.

And a guy told me I was a super cutie, which made me smile.

Then with random calls, random text messages, and random Instant Messages, random breaks to check MySpace, the day kinda dragged, but I finally got to really, really drawing around 8. By this time, I am hungry, the final episode of Charmed was on and after that the season finale of Desperate Housewives would start, I knew then that the last half of the night would not be productive at all. (Have you noticed that I am slave to serial television? It’s a disease I tell you!)

Once I got into the drawing, I was hung up on one particular part of the panel. It called for a wooden cigar store Indian to be in the background. Not knowing what one looked like, I was baffled and tried to imagine what it would look like, until Travis told me to check the Internet and like a doofus, I checked and I was able to draw it after looking at a few examples. I felt, dumb because that little suggestion would have saved me hours of just trying to do that and starting over again. Hmmmm. Thinking. That’s a new concept altogether. =)

After work, I am coming straight home to draw some more, because tonight’s the final episode ever of Alias and I’ll be watching the 2-hour finale of more memorable television. LOL.

I don’t think I’ll get much in while it’s on tonight. I'll try though.

Could this be racist?

The Boston Globe reported today that after reviewing the new CW fall lineup announcement, the newly merged station has taken all of the UPN "black " comedies that's remaining and put them all on Sunday night. They're calling it the Urban Comedy Block, which includes: All of Us, Girlfriends, The Game (the spin-off to Girlfriends), Everybody Hates Chris with a repeat of America's Next Top Model closing the night out at 9:00.

Excuse me? Did they just ghettotized Sunday nights with all the shows with black leads in them? Is that not the craziest shit you've heard all week?

UPN which held the largest marjority of African American viewership due to their programming, only kept a handfull of their programming. Could this be racisit, that none of the black shows will intermingle with the predominately white shows from the WB? I am not all claiming to be a civil activist in this respect. Well it's been a while, but the last time I checked, isn't that segregation?

The CW felt that these shows were the highest rated for UPN and that sunday's will be their "big nights" and they're looking forward to the advertisiers paying good money to being in front of top rated shows like this. However, on UPN these shows were spread out over the course of two or three nights and they intermingled with whatever shows were on the channel at the time. They weren't much and maybe not even very memorable, but that's what they did. Does that make it different? Maybe. It wasn't viewed as racist before, but I often joked that UPN stood for "Unncessary Programming for Negroes" and that's not a personal opinion either. Many thought UPN catered to the African American community. I think they found a niche and took action. A bulk of the programming on UPN before the merger had all the black shows back to back, but it seems so odd now especially when they made a point of it and gave it day. Not even a day, a few hours. Is CW playing it safe with the programming or will they get reactions like mine to how racist that Urban Comedy Block is?

I could also be overthinking this entire thing as well.

Movie Review: Mission: Impossible 3

So my annual summer movie experience started last week with Mission Impossible 3. I do have to say, after all the crap that’s been going on with Tom Cruise, I do have to say this is probably the best one he’s done to date. I’ll always love the Top Gun forever and ever, but Mission Impossible is his franchise baby and he’s done it impressively well for the 3rd time out.

You can say all you want about Tom Cruise and you don’t have to support his dementia or loony antics, but he’s been churning out hit movies for years and his personal life or religious views shouldn’t have anything to with how well his movies do. I think this is why it’s not doing as well as it should or predicated it should. Americans are finicky and will quickly leave your side if you become “too out of the way”. Tom’s been a Scientologist for years. What difference does it make now that you can’t/won’t go see his movies, unless you never really liked him to begin with?

Anyway, MI:3 was headed up this time by Alias and Lost creator JJ Abrams, who is like a god to me. First it’s Joss Whedon and now it’s him. So you knew right away it was going to have Abrams style of story telling which it so did. MI:3 opens up not exactly at the beginning, but somewhere in the movie, where Ethan has been beaten bruised and looks like he’s at his end. Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) asks for the Rabbit’s Foot, Ethan pleads that he gave it to him, but apparently it wasn’t the right thing. Ethan is barely coherent and it gives you the sense that how he got there wasn’t the greatest and whoever is in the seat across from him with a gun to her head is important. So you got mood. Check. Then there’s the tension breaker where Owen is threatening to shoot the woman at the count of 10. He counts down and when he gets close to pulling the trigger, the screen cuts to the infamous wire-burn and the theme song begins. Wow. All in the first 5 minutes of the movie. Great shit.

The movie then goes a ways back to get you some background before we got to that point. JJ Abrams is like the Tarantino of espionage adventures. It’s a flashback style story-telling and fleshing-out backwards tactic that I love so much in Alias or Lost for that matter (even though it infuriates me at times in Lost), it’s a great technique that’s he mastered. Ethan is not an active field agent anymore, however he still works for IMF, but as a trainer for new agents. He’s also engaged, but hasn’t told his fiancée about his real job. During their engagement party, he gets an encrypted message to meet his supervisor for a secret mission that Ethan would be interested in. Ethan’s immediate response was no, but soon he found out who the mission regarded he went for it. With a quick scene change and in pure Alias style, the location is typed up on the screen and the infiltration begins. Ethan is back in the game and looks like he doesn’t miss a beat. Here we are introduced to his IMF team, which of course is his mainstay Luther, and then two new agents Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Zhen (Maggie Q – I love her. Check out the import movie Naked Weapon to see what I mean.). From there, the rest of the movie is
pure adrenaline. After the first mission, we begin to realize there’s something
really wrong here and Ethan’s re-introduction into the fold is part of it. It’s a genius plot point, which turns MI:3 into an intense action film, even better than the John Woo sequel. I won’t go into spoilers, even though I usually do, but not this time.

As for the rest of the film, the pacing was excellent. The movie was pure fun at every turn. It never really slowed down. It moved like a 2 hour Alias episode.
So I never felt foreign to his style of filmmaking. The camera work was fantastic and on point with the wicked movement of the film, the angles and cinematography were rich and telling. I loved it. Also, Tom is probably in the best shape of his life right now. One scene in particular, in China when Tom is running down a crowded street by the river. The camera never left his side and he ran and ran and ran. He jumped and ran some more. You can see his muscles stretching and tensing up. He did all or most of his own stunts including falling down the side of a high rise building in Hong Kong, hanging out of a car door while in high pursuit, or being thrown into a car from a missile explosion. See all that action. Awesome. It’s the best one out of the franchise, it’s just a shame it’s not going to get praise it deserves because of some “not so normal” things Tom has done over the last few months.

The amount of talent in the movie was awesome as well, headliners like Hoffman and Laurence Fishburn as the new head of IMF, were excellent additions and brought a presence to their screen time. JJ Abrams loves his black folk. That’s why I love him. And a geek like me loved the fact that Simon Pegg was in it as well. He’s a comedic genius. If you were a fan of Shaun of the Dead, then you’d know why. I definitely recommend this movie to everyone, if you’re a fan of espionage movies, like to have fun at the movies, or if you are a Tom Cruise fan or not. Go see it! I might just see it again and pray that the DVD comes out soon.

No F-ing Way!!!!

One of my favorite sites is Ain't It Cool News. Today, I posted this response to the announcement of the CW's new fall lineup, of which a show I was really looking forward to was not listed. Not even as a mid-season replacement. Aquaman's pilot show didn't even get out of the water. I got the sad face on now. First the death of Superboy and now this. Can't a guy get a break? =(

"I am pretty bummed that Aquaman didn't get picked up. I was anticipating something since they've been showing his Smallville appearance like 4 times this season. It's clearly a favorite of the season. WB should have at least shown the pilot and seen what it would do and take it from there. They should have fought for it. It looked to be a definite. From the trailer I saw, it looked to be cooler than Smallville ever was. Clearly they dont want any new ratings, because they're only introducing like 2 new shows and brining back 7th Heaven for fucks sake. Didn't that show just go off the air for good?! Anyway, I can't hope anymore, because I agree with Capt. Murphy, it would have more than likely received the OC treatment, but that's who they're targeting girls from 11-18 who like that crap. Not for us geeks who actually want to see a serial based on a comic book character. All we keep getting are re-interpetitations of characters we've seen for years at least from the DC front. Aquaman was a new venture. Aquaman would've rocked."

If you'd like to see the promo trailer, go here: Aquaman trailer

Dear Carrie,

So I made this conscious effort to really focus on myself and get my life to the point where I am obtaining goals and setting standards for my life. I am working on getting to the best person I can be. Whether it is in my personal life, professional, or creatively, I have this need to get it right. However, somewhere down the road, I sorta kinda did this whole self-imposed celibacy thing. Yeah I know weird.

Since I’ve been dedicated to getting everything else in order, I believe I have been purposefully putting sex aside to concentrate on other aspects of my life. I’ve been pouring all of that energy into working, getting through school and getting into my art more. Unfortunately, it works and yeah I’ve done it before, but this time it’s a little different. It’s damn near uncontrollable.

This self-imposed celibacy is kickin my ass all over the place and I don't know what to do.

Having sex a few months ago wasn’t really a problem, because honestly I was seeing someone and I guess that was part of the package. Now, things are different because there’s no one around like that and having sex with a stranger is well – let’s just say temptation is there, but I am leaning more towards no at this point. I know that’s all the rage of us gays for about a millennia now, but I don’t have it in me to do it. At least take me to a movie and dinner first – then maybe you know what I am saying?

So yeah – I’ve been digging out the old, but reliable porn stashes to keep me “within grasp” of what I really need to do. And that’s buy more porn!!! I am so in the need for some new stuff. And it’s such a longer-term investment than internet porn. Sex is the devil’s pudding and he loves it with a spoon. So I try not to give in. It’s not easy though. Just yesterday it seemed that every guy I saw was so utterly attractive and oozing sex and I’m like going gah gah. If I went to my barbershop right now, just looking at the people in there, I think I would explode. Yesterday, I lusted after the entire St. Fancis college baseball team while I was getting coffee. I am even looking at one the guys in the mailroom with a certain degree of lust that’s making me even uncomfortable. It’s bad.

All I have to do is pretty much ignore it right, but even that’s becoming difficult. How do the Christian’s do it I’ll never know? In this world of numerous hookup sites, what’s a boy to left to his own devices do?

Sincerely,

Suffering in Sunset

My Lil' Sister Graduated

Today Aja, my little sister graduated from St. John’s University. It was a joyous time for all since, technically Aja is the first one of us all to successfully complete a college education and funny enough I finally finished after 7 years myself this week in taking my final class towards my major. So go us.

It was a dreary day and with the forecast calling for rain, we were hoping that the first ceremony, which was to happen outside, would not get rained out. Thankfully it didn’t. The sun tried it’s best to peak through and keep the rain at bay.

Family from near and far came out for Aja’s graduation: Virginia, Tennessee, Coney Island. LOL. Her dad came and his family and as well as our mom’s family. Mom and Aja’s dad still hate each other which is so funny after all these years and it’s hysterical to watch him try to avoid her or act like she’s not even in the room. Minus that it was really great to see her complete something like this. I am very proud of her.

It did however get my mom talking to about me possibly walking after all this time. I told her that I did want to at one point and that it’s been so long, that I would feel odd going back to DSU, not knowing anyone, not even the teachers anymore, might be difficult to do. As we talked more, I realized it might not be that bad and I told her that I’d do it for her, if it really meant a lot to her to see both children graduation ceremonies. After more consideration, I can’t do it this year, but it’s definitely a possibility for next May.

Other than that, my sister is well on her way to being an adult. She’s got a good job lined up straight out of college and she’s going to be aiight. Better off than my mom, or me, ever was - which is awesome.

My New Superfriend

Look at what I got today. Cool ain't it? It was the last one in the store and I had been looking for this for a while now. I am such a sucker for shit like this and I got it anway. It called to me. It said "Dré take me home with you." And I did. This was such an unscheduled purchase, but it's so f-ing cool.

American Idol is Over (for me that is)

Now that Chris Daughtry is gone, I won't be watching American Idol for the rest of the season.

With this season of American Idol, I was off and on about it. Since many of the contestants weren't as great as the past seasons, I watched in the beginning, but not after that. Around when the season started to dwindle down in the number of contestants I watched it when I could (or when I was not in school) and I picked Chris Daughtry as my favorite competitor. He was sexy and talented and I was excited every week to see what he wore and sang.

Now grant it, I don't call in and vote, because I am on my way home from school when the show's voting process happens and honestly, I forget to. However, Chris did phenomenal every week and had never been in the bottom two. That was until last night. Along with Catherine McPhee, Chris was finally in the bottom two and went home. In the largest reality tv upset since I don't know when, one of the best competitors of this entire season is sent home. Chris had been plugged in betting cirlces, across multitudes of newspaper articles as the next American Idol winner. His pictures as I understand it, are downloaded 5 times more than the other contestants over the internet. I think that's a huge thing. However, that didn't help him.

I think Chris was voted off, because he actually didn't receive any votes. I think Chris fan's who don't call in (like me) overestimated their belief in the fans that would call in. We left it up to the ones who consistantly do it and tuesday night should have been the night Chris fans should have voted especially at this stage of the competition. And the type of songs Chris "changes" to suit his style could have been a factor as well. Chris is a rocker, and the other competitors has their own style. Many say that Chris didn't change. So his audience could have been very narrow that were into his style of music. Chris may not have been what America wants and that just means the music they like sucks.

The judges were shocked by the outcome. As was Chris. The audience booed at the results. America got it wrong, because god forbid if that flailing, osteoperosis-ridden Taylor Hicks gets it, which I think he will unless Elliot Yamin's fan base jumps up enormously in the next few weeks. McPhee should have went home instead, but either way. This can be looked at as an opportunity. Chris's popularity will be infamous because of this. I hear he's already got offers from a major band less than 24 hours after the results. He'll go on to do great things solo or even as a front man in any band. And I will buy anything he releases. Chris brought something different to the show. Elliot is good, but he's more Barry Manilow and I hate Barry Manilow.

As of now, it seems the runner ups always seem to do better in thier careers than the ones who actually do win. Well the expection of that is Kelly Clarkson. The winners seem to fade away after awhile. No one hears from Carrie Underwood, Fantasia Barrino's not around, and Reuben Studdard is somewhere and you would think you'd see his fat ass too.

As I sit here and think about it more, I'll probably watch the beginning of the final episode when the top 12 come back and sing in duets and the like. I'll see Chris again and I'll be happy.

For right now, I'm waiting for that record deal annoucement Chris, so until then we'll miss you. Keep rockin'!

My Presentation Rocked Last Night!!!

Ever since I got back from Puerto Rico, I had been working tirelessly on my final school project. I've been up late over the past few nights on the powerpoint, at the library over the weekend meeting my group and generally just trying to make this the best damn presentation ever. Since there's not a final test, the project is the largest percentage of our grades so I needed this to stellar in terms of delivery, content and overall competency of the topic at hand.

I was pretty nervous and stressed out leading up to last night, because I honestly felt I put more work into this project than the rest of my group and it meant more to me than they knew. Throughout the course I was doing okay, not perfect. Going back to school is slightly difficult after a 7 year hiatus, even though it was one class, fitting that into a relatively routine existence was tough, but I did it. So the powerpoint had to be thing to send me over the edge gradewise especially since we were being graded by our peers and not the teacher.

Saturday, I came up with the concept of presenting our market research in the form of a board of directors meeting with a faux company, complete with made up financials, imaginary customer profiles, fake growth charts and even a completely invented logo. I went all out of the way for this presentation. I needed to and the fact that I do this type of stuff for a living helped. My group thought it was fantastic idea and from what they had seen so far from the other groups an original concept that would go over very well. And it did! I was excited and psyched and all around pumped to do this and everything flowed so naturally. I remember my days as a seller at About.com and I never forgot the training.

We rocked the hell out of that presentation! Everyone was thoroughly impressed with the amount of input, dedication and hardwork we put into and how professional it was. We were on point and complimented the fuck out of each other. The real clencher was when we revealed that the company did not exist and that we made the entire thing up, we got a standing ovation. It hadn't been done before and we were the last group, so it stood out the most as well. My teacher even made the comment on how he thought it was real and he commended us on a fantastic presentation and the fact that we were all dressed up in business attire helped the mood considerably. I remember being a business student and doing that at Del State, my group memebers are business students and they do it now, so it was a given we would. I did look cute in my business suit I do have to say. My sister stopped by my job and took a picture of me, so I'll see if I can get it.

The entire presentation was a hit. We had interest and questions. I am so happy and proud of myself for it. Not only did it take a lot for me to do this, but I can scratch off one thing of my list of goals and that's finishing my education, because of last night that was officially my last class towards my degree. All that's left is some paperwork and transfer of credits and I'm done. I've got the BA under my belt then.

Now on to the next goal....

Heating Up The Water

A fellow geek asked me if I had heard anything on the Aquaman show in development. I told him I had heard a few things about casting and the such, but not much. The last time I had heard anything was when they stated on going back to the guy who played A.C. in the Smallville episode, so I Googled it and found some stuff.

My excitement was heightened when I found out that the two hour movie pilot wrapped up in early, April and will more than likely debut this summer before the launch of the new CW Network. However, CW hasn't announced their entire lineup yet, but I do know that several shows from each network is going over and "Aquaman" hasn't been officially announced yet. We'll have to wait until May 18th to hear the entire lineup. Logically, if the movie is introduced in the summer, episodes will have to be made right after and "Aquaman", which is oddly titled Mercy Reef, will at that point be likely air mid-season. In the meantime, feast your eyes on who they picked to be A.C a.k.a. Aquaman: Justin Hartley. Tom Welling is going to have some serious competition, because unlike Smallville, Mercy Reef will all be utilizing storylines contained around or within water, so this beauty will more than likely be shirtless half the time. Oh yeah!

Haven't Had A Minute To Write....

So I know I owe everyone who knew I went to PR a detailed report on what I did on the island for a week, but I haven't had a chance to write it all down yet. Besides, Will still has my camera with him, so I can get any of the photos I took while I was there either, which I also want to share with everyone.

Also, ever since I got back I have been working on my final school project which is due Wednesday and it's been killing me, because I've been taking up the slack for these two chicks on everything. I better get a good grade on my final project. I need to pass something seriously, so I can put this part of my life to bed. But I digress...

yeah PR was a blast and I loved. I'll write about it soon. So keep checking back.

- dre

Twas the Night Before PR....

So it's about 12:15am and in a few hours, I'll be at the airport waiting to get on a flight to Puerto Rico. I am so excited I can hardly contain myself because this will be my first time going to PR and I am so looking forward to everything I'll experience.

I am a little tired though. I was up late the night before. This has been the longest weekend. Today was just picking up from last night as far as getting ready is concerned. I am all packed. I got my haircut this afternoon, which by the way was hysterical because I was joking with my barber about putting a design in the back of my head. And he did and now I have this. Thanks Pupi. I don't know what it is, but I haven't had a design in the back of my head since '91. Do you like? I don't know what it is. But damnit if Pupi didn't make me want to do this more often. I don't know if someone my age should do this anymore? LOL.

Anyway, this is trip is going to be so awesome and so defining for me, because this is the first trip where I can truly say I worked damn hard to get it and I am going to enjoy every minute of it. I'm gonna draw and sketch while I am there, because when I get back I have at least 4 weeks to get myself in shape for the talent search. Right now, I just hope I have enough clothes.

So if I can, I'll try to keep everyone updated on my trip as it happens. I am not certain on the net access I'll have, if any. If not, you'll read about it when I get back. I'm going to take so many pictures. When I get back, my posts are going to be insane.

Next stop, San Juan.