Vader just couldn't take it anymore

Suprise. I'm not angry

So, as hyped for a week, I finally saw Iron Man 2. It was very, very well done. I've been analyzing for a while now, and can't really think of anything. As in the first, Robert Downey Jr. personified the character so well. Don Cheadle was good as Rhodey, and while I'm upset about the cast change, its not Cheadle's fault, so I wont blame him. I loved the use of Nick Fury, the Black Widow (as a SHIELD agent) and Justin Hammer. Also, the post-credit sequence was a well played teaser for the next Marvel movie to be released, THOR. The cameo of Cap's shield was great too, reminding me how excited I am for a Cap movie, but how peeved I am that its Chris Evans....Anyway, moving on now.

One thing I am curious about is that they seemed to play down the role Stark will have with the Avengers initiative. Now, Iron Man is, despite my thought to the contrary (I wasn't a big Marvel guy outside Spidey and the X-Men for a long time, a founding member. So I'm curious to see if they remedy this in the next Iron Man movie or the Avengers movie, or if this is a budgetary thing about Downey Jr. It remains to be seen. It will be tough for the Avengers to avoid the trap of the X-Men movies, too many stars to pay high salaries to for a sustainable franchise.

That all said, I'm not angry. Great movie. Go see it. Hell, call me, I'll see it again.

OH! One thing. How is it that in twenty minutes of footage at the Worlds Fair Grounds in Flushing I didn't see Citi Field in the background ONCE. I saw the tennis stadium, but not Citi Field (or Shea depending on when they filmed it, could have been both).

Oh Lucas, how I hate you

So, I was thinking to myself, man, a quiet weekend (Iron man 2 awaits next weekend) nothing to rant about. Then, monday came and I'm thinking shit, still nothing. But, good old George Lucas never lets me down. I'm on wookiepedia (The most commonly visited site on my browser history 9/10 weeks) and notice that one of the recently updated pages is Boba Fett. Now, I've never been one of those huge Fett fanboys, no so called "Fandalorian", but lets face it, Fett is highly bad-ass and Karen Traviss's portrayal of him in the Legacy of the Force series was phenomenal. I loved the set up with him mentoring Jaina, and the growth of his character alongside Bevin and Mirta. That drew me in. Now, if you're not familiar with the whole Lucas-arts mess that cause Karen Traviss to quit writing for star wars, look it up, email me and i'll explain, etc. Suffice to say GL has decided that through the travesty that is the Clone Wars tv show, Lucas has destroyed something his fans held dear, once again. Though you'd think we'd be used to it by now.
I was excited by the prospect of the clone wars tv show. Until I saw it and realized what a giant steaming infantile piece of shit it was. It could have been SOOOOOO good. But no. Its a crappy kids tv sci-fi show that sadly has a star wars license. Apparently, it also has a license to shit all over the continuity that Lucasarts has allowed to pass over the years as well. See also the Mandalorian incident.
So now, in an attempt to help their ratings, Lucas brought in Boba Fett for the season finale arc of the series. Boba Fett hires Aurra Sing through Dooku to help him get his revenge on Mace Windu. Seems a logical thing. Except for the already existing storyline wherein Fett and Sing HATE EACH OTHER. Oh yea, then he recruits other Bounty Hunters, which includes Bossk. You know, Trandoshan guy, great Bounty Hunter. Smart idea, right? Wrong. Boba Fett is numero dos on Bossks hate list behind the late Chewbacca. Ok, I know that they're young and might not hate yet, but I still would have left him out of this. Most of the kids watching the clone wars have no idea who Bossk is anyhow.
Then, later in the story, Sing takes a prisoner, which is right in line with her character. She's a dark side bitch. She's ruthless, uncompromising, and depriving her republic prisoner of food. And Fett turns soft and helps the guy! He's on a quest to kill the Jedi battlemaster, but he's gonna spare a repbulic admiral who's death he KNOWS (and sing reminds him of this) will bring a jedi army to find the killers, and the nearest Jedi general is WINDU!
Fett is not warm and fuzzy. The Mandalorians are not pacifists. This NEEDS TO END.

Now, I know, this is GL's playground, they're his toys, he can do what he wants. Except for one little thing. Over the course of the years since Zahn wowed us with the Thrawn trilogy the EU has become something of a wonder. To maintain control, Lucas licensing has held power of approval over all storylines. This is especially true since the switch in publishers. But now, GL is shitting all over the continuities HE APPROVED to put out this shit kids show. Its terrible, and it needs to end. Everytime something like this happens, I lose another notch of excitement for the upcoming live action show, because I just know that its going to end terribly. And begin terribly for that matter.
That being said, I love the direction the EU is going right now with the Fate of the Jedi series and the Legacy era comics. Please, please GL, don't fuck this up anymore.
Signed, all your fans.
Thats my rant, thats my rave.

Now, having just said that I like where the EU is going, I'm currently reading Millenium Falcon (the novel) and we'll see how that ties in. Its a related stand-alone between two coordinated cycles. We'll see how that ends.

What to be angry about today?

Ok, don't actually have anything nerd related to rant about today. But I've got a nice political rant lined up. If you havent heard, google it and look it up because if I go find the link now I'll have to re-read it and then I'll end up Hulking out here, and well, I want to avoid that in public. But here's the gist:
Five students in a bay-area high school (San Fran) were asked to leave school or face suspension yesterday because they committed the horrible atrocity of wearing American Flag t-shirts to school. Read that again. American high-school students sent home and threatened with disciplinary action for wearing t-shirts which displayed the flag of their nation, and their pride in that nation wherein they live. Now, the "reasoning" behind this is because it was Cinco de Mayo, a Mexican holiday. So, because they wore American Flag t-shirts on a Mexican holiday, they were asked to leave or told they'd be forced to leave if they didnt. If your blood pressure hasn't shot through the god-damn roof reading this yet, check your pulse, I think you're dead. This is the biggest god-damn pile of steaming horse shit I've ever fucking heard. This is AMERICA. Freedom of expression. Look it up. These students were asked to go home for displaying pride in their nation on a mexican holiday, IN THE UNITED STATES!
For fucks sake, this has gone too far. The administrators and teachers who are behind this should be taken out of the schools and never allowed near one again. This is America. Freedom of expression is one of the key tenets of this country. Obviously, these jackasses dont know that, and therefore, should be denied the chance to butcher the education of children any farther.
Veins are pulsing, and the skins taking on a bit of a greenish hue. Think its time to stop. Till next time. I hope to be seeing Iron Man 2 this weekend. God willing, I won't have a terrible review to right up about it. Fingers crossed

Questions abound

So, I'm sure that if anyone is actually reading this, that person is most likely wondering a few things. Let me see if I can help.

1) Why now?
2) Why start with Kick Ass?
3) Why are you angry?
4) What do you consider a justifiable change?
5) But I loved that movie/book/comic/etc, how can you hate it?
That should do it for now.

1) Because yesterday, on Star Wars day, aka May the Fourth, I realized I hadnt had a good nerd rant in a while. Not since a lengthy discussion on the state of marvel comics with Bill at the bar a few weeks ago. (Yes, I said lengthy discussion, marvel comics, and bar in the same sentance). Today, while mowing the lawn, I started thinking about how much the movie adaptation of Kick Ass annoyed me. Which leads us to #2

2) Because I just saw it, its recent, and when I came up with this idea, I was looking for something to start with (and really hoping it wouldn't end up being Iron Man 2). Also, as mentioned above, I wrote the rant in my head during the most boring downtime known to man, lawn-mowing time. Oh, and ya know, cause it SUCKED.

3) I'm a fan, which as we all know, is derived from fanatic. I'm passionate about the things I like/love/nerdily-obsess over, and it bothers me to no end when things are changed for no reason whatsover, and it changes the story/character. Like Greedo shooting first in the special edition. Wait, that brings me into the next question.

4) A justified change when taking a project from novel or comic to big screen is something that doesnt screw the story, keeps the characters personas intact, and generally works well. Like making it Manhattan's energies in Watchmen, instead of the Giant Monster, cause well, that would have taken another hour plus to explain and people* would have lost interest in the movie. Thats a good change. Or leaving out the troubles of the Shire at the end of ROTK, because again, another hour of movie required. Unjustifiable is easy to explain. Like the aforementioned unforgiveable Greedo shooting first. Totally changes the character of Han Solo. Sadly, not the worst thing GL's ever done to his fans. (Yes, I'm talking about Jar-Jar) Another mortal sin is exhibited in Spiderman 3. Changing the iconic Goblin bridge scene in Spidey 1 worked well. In this universe, no Gwen Stacey. Thats fine. But then for the love of Odin don't suddenly insert her two sequels later as a totally different character!!

5) Easily. You liked something I didnt? Well good for you. This is my blog. Go write your opinions on your own blog. Don't like my opinions? Please respond, I'm always up for intelligent response/debate. Have no intelligent response/debate (or intelligence of any kind), get lost. There are a billion other blogs online NOT written by me, go check them out. Live long and prosper, or at least enjoy life till Darwinism catches up with you.

Anything else you feel a burning need to know, email me. Angrynerd21@gmail.com.
Thats my rant, thats my rave, goodnight all.

*By people here, I mean most people. Not me. I'm the guy who watched all three extended LOTR films in a row, and all six Star Wars in a marathon which included the midnight premiere of Ep III

Concerning Kick Ass

Ok, I'll start this with honesty. I'd never read or even heard of Kick Ass until the movie trailer premiered. I didnt even know it was based on a comic book at first, I just thought it'd be a parody of superhero movies. Now, had I not gone on Wikipedia, and not done my homework, I probably would've enjoyed the hell out of that movie. I'd have laughed, had some stupid fun, and enjoyed mocking Nicholas Cage's Shatner-esque method of talking (Ok, I'm still gonna do that). But, like a good nerd, I looked up what this movie was about before I dropped $10 to go see it. And I discovered it was based on a well reviewed comic book. So, I decided I'd read the book before I saw the movie. Man, I'm an idiot.

Lets interlude here. Years ago, I'd have instantly known that any movie based on a book was terrible. Then, along came a man named Peter Jackson, and he showed me that movies based on books, even if they made some changes, could still be amazing. Then Chris Nolan made his Batman movies, and Sam Raimi made Spiderman 1 & 2, and Jon Favreau made Iron man, and there was 300, and V for Vendetta, and finally Watchmen, and I was convinced that movies from books and comic books, could in fact, be AWESOME.

I read Kick Ass and was impressed by the depth of the story, the severe emotional twists, the dark nature of the story. The surprise twist in Red Mist and Big Daddy's stories, Dave's final rejection by Katie, these were true "Holy Shit" moments. This was a fantastic book. I was hooked. I had high expectations, having seen the trailers showing Hit-Girl's total bad-assitude, and the scene where she trains getting shot in the chest.
Oh man, was I wrong. They fucked this movie up ROYALLY.
It wasn't that they left out the twist in Big Daddy's story. It wasn't that they decided to make Kick Ass and Hit Girl's assault on Genovese the next night, it wasn't the change of it being Katie's ex-boyfriend instead of the other ladies. Hell, I'm even willing to almost, and I stress almost, forgive the jet-pack scene. Nope, it wasn't that.
It was the total un-needed fucking up of two main characters stories, Katie and Red Mist.
First, it was the total and complete change in Katie's personality, the fact that much like Michael Bay, they felt a need to insert a happy love-story into this bad-ass action film. Katie wasn't supposed to fall for him, she was supposed to freak the fuck out on him when he revealed he wasn't gay.
Secondly, it was also the total ruination of the surprise betrayal of Red Mist. The actor who played him was great, but very, very distinctive. There was no reason to show him so much prior to his assuming the costume, or his whining to let his father allow him part of the business. Just show him briefly, like the comic, and let it be a total and complete shock when he pulls his pistol and shoots Hit Girl. Not to mention they totally failed to establish his position as well as his partnership with Kick Ass.

So, that said, IT SUCKED.
Thats my rant, thats my rave, and thats my opinion.