A second look at that Wolverine movie thing

Due to the subject matter of the movie being so pressing for the world of comic books, I have decided to take a second look at X-Men Origins: Wolverine (though it's probably more like x-men oranges:tangerine, amirite?), this time observing the final, completed project.

I feel I should explain how this viewing came to be. Well, it was Wednesday, and some friends and I were watching the UEFA Champions league game in Center City in a bar, and being drunk and suggestible, we decided it was a good idea to watch that wolverine movie, i think as a joke, but does it really matter at this point?

First things first

What was different from the leak to the finished product? If you recall, the leak came out a month ahead of the planned theater release, the special effects look unfinished all around, and they claimed they had to add a scene or two.

Well, the scenes that looked really unfinished (as in stand in computer graphics) were finished, but that was pretty much it. Aside from the final fight with "deadpool", there was little to none done to improve the special effects of the movie. In fact, I waited through the credits to see that final clip that was rumored (meh). The real joy from doing this was seeing how short the actual credits were. For a movie of that production value scale, it was extremely small in fact -- compare to waiting till the end of one of the Matrixes (probably reloaded) to see that clip, the credit list was monstrous. It's as if they simply plan on passing out x:men movies as quick as possible, knowing that they're a sellable commodity, even when they suck (see: X3).

Oh, and the "younger" Professor X looks like a clown. And, little nit picking note here, but didn't Prof X lose his ability to walk sometime in the 50's or 60's (not sure of the exact date/year, but Lucifer dropped a rock on his legs or something before he founded the X men). The bulk of the wolverine movie appears to take place in the 70's -- that's another thing, for something that needs to rely so strongly on convention and proven methods of writing workable "dramatic" matierial, the action is spread out over a veeerrrryyy long period of time, and that's not even counting the "throwaway" intro showing what Wolvie and Sabretooth did from the mid 1800's (before Canada, let alone the NW territories existed) until they got kicked out the the AMERICAN army during Vietnam.

The worst part may actually still be the deadpool treatment. It appears as if somehow during the course of that month when the movie was leaked and outrage stormed, one of the gaff boys or whatever was actually decided to pick up a (and i mean a, singular) deadpool comic and tried coaxing the director to throw some shit in there. The result was really only two things -- his face is scarred (though not that much, and not because of cancer) and at one point the area around his eyes was black, like his mask (except this was on his skin, as a reaction to shooting cyclops' optic blasts). I wouldn't be surprised to go back and look at the credits and see T-Ray as a producer.

I'm still puzzeled as to how they could have screwed it up that much. Really. The humor was there though, in a mystery science theater 3000 sort of way. Still no consolation.

The Starship has left earth

Jefferson Starship is the image of washed up and datedness.

I recently had the "pleasure" of seeing them play a free show at the AC boardwalk. Thank god it was free.

Only one member remains from when the band was called "Jefferson Airplane" and only one other is from the original Jefferson Starship days of the mid-70s. Grace Slick apparently retired sometime around the late 80s, early 90s; leaving arguably the most identifiable member of the group out (especially to those who are not hardcore followers). In her stead, a washed up blues singer has filled the space. Her claim to fame thus far is playing Janis Joplin in a musical biography of the singer. Writer's note: She was born in 1969, according to wikipedia, meaning she was hardly even conscious for all of this stuff. The lead guitarist looked like a 60 year old sonic the hedgehog, at least the haircut. He's only been with the band since the mid 90s. Same goes for the keyboardist (who also plays bass synth, replacing the awesome need of having an actual bassist on stage, for shame). The drummer has been with the band maybe a year or two.

Maybe the show wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't so insistant on playing new material, including a folk song about Barrack Obama (San Francisco Liberals haven't done any of those yet, have they?")

Did black cargo pants come back in style? Were they ever in style?

Is Jefferson Starship the soundtrack to the daily life of a casino security guard?

How many packs of cigarettes can the lone original member smoke within a set/show?

Has the old starship member ever gotten off his seemingly decade long acid trip?

If they're anarchists then why do they support Barrack Obama, not only one in favor of institutions, but of creating new ones and making existing ones larger?

Are people still oblivious to the fact that "White Rabbit" is about drugs?

Why did the chick singer keep playing "solo" stuff?

Why didn't they play "we built this city (on rock and roll)"?


Much like the number of licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop (3), the world may never know the answers to these questions.

-- Knuttel

Bo, the new Checkers

About a month or so ago the President finally got his family that dog he promised them. Now that the news on this has died down, it is now time for me to throw my two cents in. Barry O was often quoted as stating before that he wanted a "hypo-allergenic" dog, and he wanted a dog from a shelter.

The only shelter this dog came from was one of the Kennedy Compounds.

That's right, Bo, the purebread Portuguese Water dog, was formerly a pet of Senator Ted Kennedy.

For those of you who have been living in a cave, Senator Ted Kennedy is an old and particularly powerful Democratic Senator from an old and particularly powerful political family (his cousin, Jack, maybe you've heard of him, he was President of the United States from 1961-1963).

So basically this dog is a political favor, a gift, expecting return.

It's very similar to a situation that occured 53 years ago, when Vice President Nixon was campaigning for he and President Eisenhower's second term. In addition to receiving a substantial amount of money from a prominent Texas political booster, Nixon received a puppy named Checkers.

So these situations are pretty darn similar. Prominent Executive office position holder receives puppy dog in exchange for what would appear to be a political favor. The kids loving the dog of course is always the reason that the dog cannot go. They've grown too attached.

So why is Obama receiving no crap at all for this, yet when this happened to Nixon, alot of prominent politicians (both sides of the aisle, if I remember correctly) called for Nixon's removal from the ticket. Eisenhower himself had to issue a speach saying something to the effect of "as for the dog, we've decided to keep him" -- referring of course to Nixon, and not Checkers.

So seriously. Try to have at least just a little bit of journalistic integrity on the matter. The not-from-a-shelter issue got moderately explored, but that was about it.

Is Obama really that much of a media darling?

I could start a rant here, but in possibly better judgement I am choosing against it.

-- Knuttel