Posted Aug 26th 2008 5:03PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: The Geek Beat
I had planned to do a column ranking the boys of summertime the way I had with the women – but as I've been plotting it out, I realized it wasn't going to work. The roles men are given are infinitely more heroic, interesting, and complex, and any ranking would quickly become a list of
favorites rather than best. And it's predictable – Tony Stark, Wall E, Harvey Dent, end of story, and totally boring. The more I tried to make it less so, the more slippery the concept became, and I realized it was all a thinly veiled excuse to write about one of the characters in particular: Harvey Dent. And with Devin Faraci's
call to analytical arms, it's like a sign from the movie gods to get into meatier territory.
The most highly anticipated element of
The Dark Knight for me was also what ended up being the most disappointing – Harvey "Two-Face" Dent. In the afterglow of opening weekend, people looked askance at me when I voiced this aloud before half-heartedly defending Christopher Nolan's vision. But in all the is-he-isn't-he-dead debate of late, it's became apparent that more people agreed with me than not.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Believing in Harvey Dent
Posted Aug 19th 2008 12:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Fandom, Lists, The Geek Beat
The arrival of snow in the mountains in my neck of the woods means that summer really is on the way out. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were discussing what would be the hits and misses of the season. Now the talk is going to turn to Oscar buzz and Halloween horror. Are you freaked by how quickly time has flown by yet?
Anyway, seeing as school is already in session, I've decided to pay homage to my Geek Beat predecessor, Mark Beall, and do a list of things we learned during the summer season. For no good numerical reason, I stopped at 15. From there, it's your turn to share what important lessons you will carry from your time in the multiplex. (And a special thanks goes out to Jarrette and Matt, who bantered back and forth with me in this study session.)
1. You can use a snake as a rope and its fragile skeletal system won't pull apart. They won't even bite you if it does! (Indiana Jones)
2. All it really takes to be Batman? A really strong jaw, and nice lips.
3. When faced with Tony Stark, all your hard-hitting journalism training goes out the window. (Iron Man)
4. You can get a custom Joker suit made and no one will ever connect you or its purchase to the psychopath terrorizing Gotham. (The Dark Knight)
5. Fridges preserve not only food, but life. In the event of a nuclear blast or poisonous air, they will save humans and plants alike. Who knew? Not I. My watercress goes bad after a week. (Wall-E and Indiana Jones)
Continue reading The Geek Beat: What We Learned in Summer 2008
Posted Aug 12th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Family Films, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, The Geek Beat
With the end of summer drawing near, it's now time to begin the season's autopsy on the Beat. If you're totally burned out on discussing or reading anything to do with summer blockbusters, you may want to skip the next few columns – though I'd be terribly hurt if you did.
This week, I want to discuss the girls of summer geekdom. At the beginning of the season, I complained about
the lack of superheroines in film, a trend that not even the summer flicks seem to be reversing. (Unless it's a Top Cow property – it looks as though we will get
Witchblade and
Magdalena before we ever see Wonder Woman or Black Widow.) Nevertheless, women weren't a complete nonentity in the franchises this year -- some were quite interesting, some were merely bland, and a few were complete failures. I think it's important that we recognize the good and the bad, and with that, let's tally up the scorecard and hand out the prizes.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: The Girls of Summer 2008
Posted Aug 5th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, The Geek Beat
If you're a faithful Beat reader, you may remember that one of the
very first installments dealt with the nasty, critical side of fandom. You know the types – the ones who spend so much time hating that nothing could satisfy them. (Seth Rogen summed it up in a pithy quote that, somehow, I only just caught: "They could find out Jesus Christ was making a movie with Frank Miller and they'd say, 'That's a terrible combination!'") But now, I'd like to address the other side of the coin – and yes, one side of it is defaced to help me decide these things – and that's the uncritical element of fandom. It's a side I didn't really grasp until I started writing here, where anything vaguely critical can be followed by screams of "You're such a hater!! You want it to fail!"
When I was at ComicCon, I tried to keep up with the news of the outside world. One of the "quietest" geek stories (and something I would have talked about much earlier, had con and editorial demands not sidetracked me) was the release of
The X-Files: I Want to Believe. The bad reviews were pouring in right and left, even garnering heavy discussion on sites where the interests of geekdom are generally disdained. And no matter where you went, the comment fields were populated with X-Philes, and for every one who was verbose and rational, there were ten saying "F--- the haters! They want it to fail!"
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Take a Stand
Posted Jul 15th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Celebrities and Controversy, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, The Geek Beat
It's rare when geek culture and mainstream movie-goers unite together in barely suppressed excitement. It's so rare that, frankly, it's downright weird when it happens. I'm watching the breathless anticipation that is accompanying
The Dark Knight from all corners of the media, from places as diverse as
Jezebel and
Slate, and wondering how did it come to this...
Don't get me wrong. It's great. I haven't seen
The Dark Knight yet (I seem to be the only internet writer who didn't catch a press screening), but I feel it could be a film worthy to unite the masses. When my friends asked me, back in the depths of winter, which summer films would be the biggest and best, I didn't hesitate. "
Wall E and
The Dark Knight." I maintained this opinion, despite the impending arrivals of
Crystal Skull, Angelina Jolie, and
The Hulk.
Nevertheless, I'm still not sure where the Dark Knight mania came from. A similar excitement preceded last year's 300, but I think that was largely due to the glut of advertising, TV spots and MySpace banners in the weeks beforehand. This year, Iron Man had a similar effect, but it was practically overnight, and driven largely by the shockingly good reviews. And even so, I have friends and family who still haven't gotten around to seeing Iron Man or 300 despite the buzz – but they've had Dark Knight earmarked for months.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: The 'Dark Knight' Insanity
Posted Jul 8th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Scripts, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, The Geek Beat
Happy day! Today, we get to talk about the Master of Magnetism and his origin movie! Or, at least, we get to discuss it via the script reviews, as two have popped up online, courtesy of
Sal's Scripts and the
Coventry Telegraph. A special thanks goes out to
io9 for alerting me, and for their ever interesting commenters who spurred me into writing.
You see, without getting into the spoilery aspects of the script reviews, a few people took issue with X-Men's archvillain being made sympathetic. To make a long review short and spoiler-free, Magneto's origin story will center on his time in Auschwitz. Once free, he spends his adulthood hunting down the Nazis who tortured and experimented on him. The movie will be less about Magneto's issues with
homo sapiens, and more about his quest for justice. Professor Xavier pops up in it as a friend, but it doesn't look like this film will delve into their break or diverging philosophies.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Solo Supervillains
Posted Jul 1st 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, The Geek Beat
Collectibles! Is there any word that can warm a geek heart so quickly? I haven't addressed them here on the Beat, and not only is it long overdue, it's also timely. San Diego ComicCon is only weeks away, and it's practically the Holy Land for collectors. Already,
the list of con exclusives has hit the net, and you can smell the Preview Night stampede brewing.
Every year, this buying frenzy fascinates me, and I find myself gaping at the shelves of action figures, statues, and busts. I covet very little in the way of memorabilia, and I'm always wondering about the people who do. How do they afford it? Where do they put it all? Even on the rare occasion that I do long to own something like Sideshow Collectibles'
impeccably dressed Lara Croft, the practical half of me can't comprehend spending that kind of money. Even if I had thousands to drop on such things, I don't think I ever would, for the simple reason that I'd have to dust them. Blech.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Limited Edition
Posted Jun 24th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, The Geek Beat
It's almost a rule of comic-book adaptations: with each great superhero movie there must follow great amounts of bitching. With each 2008 summer release, there's a new editorial from some frayed writer, tired of the whole POW-SMASH-BOOM of it all. io9 is eagerly anticipating the end of the trend, while Entertainment Weekly's Chris Nashawaty bravely declared his hatred of all things superhero. I can understand their frustrations; I even share a little of the weariness. Try as I might, I can't wind myself up for Thor or Ant-Man.
But I still find myself defending the genre, albeit lamely, as my mom exclaims "Not another comic book movie!" every time she reads one of my stories. I champion it because there is one boon of the superhero surge that goes largely unnoticed: it's becoming the A-list springboard for male actors. Is your career languishing? Land a comic book lead! Think about it. Some of the most avidly buzzed-about names of late owe their status to a two-dimensional illustration.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Super Careers
Posted Jun 17th 2008 3:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, The Geek Beat
I fear this may be another weak installment, due to external suffering. As I mentioned in
last Tuesday's column, this past weekend was the start of our Renaissance Faire. It is a punishing affair here in Colorado due to our heat and elevation, and there were many moments where I wished I was watching
The Incredible Hulk instead of hiking mountainous terrain in a very small corset. And I didn't even particularly
want to see
Hulk, but felt compelled. After all, my job here is to write about movies, and every week I am given a platform to chatter about geeky topics.
The Incredible Hulk is like a midterm exam for me, a requirement to keep my geek credibility. And that became a perfect subject for this week's column.
Oh, geek cred! Speak it aloud and it vanishes, it is so fragile. My geek cred is, at the moment, more valuable than my college degree. I am delighted when someone salutes it. (By the way,
thanks again Rick Marshall.) Few people will ever care whether I remember the events leading to the 100 Years War, but my entire online life could unravel if I don't go see
The Incredible Hulk. You don't know how I live in terror that, someday, I will be asked something
Green Arrow related and not know the answer. My reputation will be in tatters. I had a chill of this earlier, when I Googled
Cowboys and Aliens and discovered everyone had read it but me. (Which is easy – the entire thing
is available online. I am horrified I missed even that.).
Continue reading The Geek Beat: The Touchiness of Geek Cred
Posted Jun 10th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, The Geek Beat
My thoughts are regrettably circling around one genre this month, as I'm in the middle of last minute Renaissance Faire scrambling. I swear, this happens every single year – I realize it's June, and that I have a week to procure buccaneer boots, or a new bodice. (Other girls need swimsuits for summer, I need pirate boots. Go figure.) In between (and inspired by) the fabric and hat shopping, I finally cracked open Children of Hurin for the first time. Revisiting Middle Earth made me nostalgic, not just for the recent years when we were eagerly awaiting each Lord of the Rings installment, but for fantasy in general. Specifically, '80s fantasy.
Someday, there will be a cultural study that reveals why there was a renewed fascination with dragons and chicks in chainmail in the '80s. I have always suspected it was the debut of Dungeons and Dragons, but an RPG played in basements could hardly inspire Hollywood to tackle the genre so eagerly. Perhaps it was the medieval styling of Star Wars, which led movie directors to declare "Jedi knights? Hey, let's do a movie with real knights!" Maybe it was all spawned by the gigantic Excalibur, or it was a delayed reaction to the hippies' rediscovery of Tolkien.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: The Failure of Big Screen Fantasy
Posted Jun 3rd 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, George Lucas, Remakes and Sequels, The Geek Beat
This week's column is about George Lucas, a long absent figure in the Geek Beat. If you find your blood pressure easily raised by even the slightest mention of his name, then skip reading this week. However, be assured that I'm not going to trot out any of the old Lucas clichés; tell you he raped my childhood, or bring up that cringe-worthy site that analyzes his neck size. But I am going to examine one of his lesser known sins: the 1996 sequel to
Willow.
Thankfully, it was consigned only to bookshelves and not foisted on an unsuspecting movie audience. If you've never heard of it, be glad. And you're not alone, as it seems to have come and gone under the radar for most geeks. Which is a shame; it could have warned us that trouble was ahead -- like Lenin's letter warning against Stalin, or the iceberg warnings sent to the Titanic.
Ah,
Willow. I didn't see it on its initial release, but rediscovered it as a pre-teen. I was enchanted by it in those days, when I was all about dragons, crystals, swords and the Renaissance Faire. (I've matured in my medieval tastes, though I still admire a well-made sword from time to time. I still have one hanging on my wall, actually.) Though I had read
The Hobbit, I had not yet tackled
Lord of the Rings, and so
Willow struck me as relatively original. Now, of course, I realize it's a blatant rip-off of Tolkien ... but oh, the folly of youth. Plus, Val Kilmer was really handsome in the flick.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: The Forgotten Sequel to 'Willow.'
Posted May 27th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Remakes and Sequels, Games and Game Movies, The Geek Beat
The hype
surrounding Indiana Jones' return is beginning to subside; now come the recriminations and fanatic defenses of the movie, but the thrill is gone. And before Lucas and Spielberg get bored and confirm a fifth Indiana Jones movie, I'd like to take this moment to offer up another reboot to Paramount.
It is time to bring back Lara Croft.
Last week, she came up again and again on the list of Indy rip-offs, which is a sad state of affairs. She's come down in the world since her 1996 debut. Croft used to be everywhere – magazine covers, t-shirts, posters; she may have originated as a blatant borrowing of Indy, but she quickly took on a pop culture life of her own. From her aqua tank-top to her twin automatics, Lara quickly escaped her progenitor's shadow, and very nearly approaches the iconic status of Indiana himself. While much of it was undoubtedly due to her impressive, er, attributes, I would also like to believe that people flocked to embrace her because she is
cool and revolutionary. Marion Ravenwood and Indiana Jones combined, but with better weaponry.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Re-Raiding the Tomb
Posted May 20th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Classics, Fandom, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, The Geek Beat
With the fourth Indiana Jones film arriving in theaters this week, a single debate seems to be raging across the Internet; it rages even now over at my favorite geek haunt: Which is better,
Temple of Doom or
Last Crusade? I had to stay out of it because I've been pondering this
Indy Week piece for too long to risk ripping off someone else's ideas. (So, Phantom Zone, consider this my two cents – and I will see you shortly!) I hope you will crave my indulgence with this piece, and not just dismiss me as that girl you hated in Old English, or rip out my heart and show it to me.
I'm a
Last Crusade girl. All the way ... and it's partly nostalgia. The movie came out when I was in the best year of grade school. We all discussed it over lunch, and the best ways to reenact it on the playground. Oddly, while I got to be Kim Basinger when we played
Batman, it never occurred to the boys to make me be Elsa Schneider. We were all our own versions of Indy. I remember the "name of God" scene to be one of our favorites, and we all came up with horrible creatures to be under each letter, collapsing in laughter when we decided J should be "Jack in the Box."
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Illumination
Posted May 13th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, The Geek Beat
Mother's Day was Sunday, making this a little late. But come on – one day out of the entire year for Mom? That's still 364 that she spends worrying about us, so I think it's safe to say that she deserves an extra nod past the official holiday. Mine certainly does, because as a geek mom, she works overtime. All moms do, but geek moms have it a little harder since their children are usually oddballs. So while this column is about my mom, I really want to salute all the geek moms out there. From the ones who didn't protest when you wanted to be MadMartigan, to the Sarah Connors and Maria Starks who inspire heroic offspring, they deserve our undying thanks.
My mom hails from the first generation of geeks. Her yearbook makes mention of Star Wars. She lined up with her then boyfriend (and my future dad) to see The Empire Strikes Back, and remembers discussing "What did Yoda mean when he said 'There is another?'" with people in line for Return of the Jedi. (For the record, she thought Han Solo would be the other Jedi.) She is the only "older" woman I know who is actually incensed by the idea that Greedo shot first.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: How To Make a Fangirl (A Belated Mother's Day Card)
Posted May 6th 2008 1:02PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Fandom, Comic/Superhero/Geek, The Geek Beat
In the glorious aftermath of
Iron Man, Marvel announced the dates for who was to follow in his titanium alloyed footsteps, and not surprisingly there's nary a superheroine among them.
I'm a little late to this conversation – even Defamer was calling for a superchick movie last week, but we all know you're stylish if you arrive late to the party. And frankly, as a geek girl, I'm given a pass and can talk about this stuff whenever the mood strikes me. Plus, if I had done it last week, we wouldn't have gotten to talk about all those cool comic books.
It's a surprising fact, but the comic book world is a lot more accepting of tough women than mainstream Hollywood. There are no doubt loads of men and women who disagree with me, pointing to Frank Miller or the unrealistic body expectations. No doubt there are a lot of damning storylines and panels ("
Quiet, or Papa spank!"), but I find much of it easy to shrug off. I'm as staunch a feminist as you can find, but I've never been able to completely shake my fist at the industry because, dammit, there was Wonder Woman and Jean Grey. From the start, comic book heroines were strong individuals, capable of action. A glance through Marvel or DC titles show plenty of women who kick ass as heroes, villains, and all the ambiguity in between.
And they've been doing it for years! Wonder Woman was battling villains when women were still being run out of the workplace – and sporting a mini-skirt while women were still unusual in pants. Of course, they show leg, of course they are extremely pretty and curvaceous, but so what? The men are all cleft-jawed and ripped like gods, so we're hardly seeing a fair shake for either gender there.
Continue reading The Geek Beat: Those Comic Book Broads Don't Need No Movies!
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