How Civil War Might Be Saved

If the last issue consists of a Thor versus Thor fight, with the real Thor utterly kicking the arse of Tony Stark's weird sex-clone-thing, it won't make up for the abundant clichés, the complete lack of much-promised moral/political analysis, or the woefully badly written characters.

But it'll be spectacular.

Re-Assembled At Last?

Warning: Geeky comics post!

Marvel have released a preview of their new Mighty Avengers series, a comic designed to win back the old Avengers fans who, like me, have abandoned Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers. In some ways, this is a nice friendly move from Marvel, as Bendis' series sells shedloads, and the company could just sit back and watch the money come in, regardless of the feelings of the established fanbase (who, for all their moaning about how much better the old days were, could only manage to muster up about half of today's sales figures).

But I won't be buying this new series, as it seems to be woefully misjudged. The warning signs were there when Marvel announced that they'd be producing a series for the old fans, written by the very same writer who'd alienated them in the first place. And from the preview, it seems that what Bendis evidently thinks is missing from his New Avengers is lots of fighting. While that is indeed missing from his slow-moving, indulgently scripted anti-superhero comic, it might also be nice to include some effective characterisation and a semblance of plot, like the original Avengers title did. To be fair, the preview is only a handful of pages in length, but it reeks of superficiality and fundamental creative misjudgement.

Oh well. I still have my back issues.

Rampant Idiocy

It. Is. A. Story. It. Is. Not. Real.

Padding

I've just noticed that Channel 4's 11:25 showing of The Simpsons runs until noon. How many advert breaks have they shoved in there to make a 22-minute show last upwards of 33 minutes?

Egad.

The Worm

Chris tagged me, so...

One book that changed your life:
I'm not sure it changed my life, but reading Wuthering Heights at school made me realise that "proper" books could be just as fun as the trashy scifi and fantasy stuff I'd been reading until then.

One book you've read more than once:
There's a fair few, actually. I always mean to read Lord of the Rings once a year, but it's actually been about twice in a decade.

One book you would want on a desert island:
Presumably something like The Dummies' Guide to Escaping Desert Islands...

One book that made you laugh:
The first Hitchhiker's, the first few Discworld books. There are a few too many to limit to just "one".

One book that made you cry:
Um, nothing.

One book you wish you had written:
The Bible, clearly.

One book you wish had never been written:
The DaVinci Code. Not because it's particularly bad in itself (I've not read it and have no desire to, but people I trust quite like it), but because of the juggernaut of stupidity that followed in its wake.

One book you are currently reading:
I'm in between books at the moment, but I've got an ever-growing stack of novels in the bedroom. Rad told me to read The Algebraist, so that'll be next.

One book you have been meaning to read:
Apart from the stack, I've always wanted to read the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Tag five people:
I'm so out of touch with the world, I don't know anyone. Let's try Rad, Nagl, Tony and Liam.

Quickie Film Reviews: R-Point

Film Four showed Korean spookfest R-Point last night (or early this morning). It's quite clearly a post-Ringu film in terms of style, right down to a Sadako clone wandering about, although the narrative, with talk of old burial grounds and curses, is a bit more traditional than the post-Hiroshima psychic teenager shenanigans of the Japanese film.

It's also something of a disappointment, but on the plus side, it's only such a let down because the opening two-thirds of the film are exceptionally well done, with a couple of nicely-paced shocks and some clever and quite subtle moments (well, I saw them as subtle, but I suppose they might seem obvious if one were to take certain portions of the script literally). Sadly, the creators seem to have run out of ideas by the end of the film (aside from one bit dealing with the fate of the lead character, which again seemed subtle and somewhat heartbreaking to me, but might in fact have been patently obvious), resorting instead to erratic storytelling and bursts of random violence. The "rules" of the curse are also somewhat inconsistent, particularly in comparison to the stark simplicity of something like the aforementioned Ringu; I'm still not sure why certain stuff does and doesn't happen to certain characters. Similarly, fairly important chunks of the script seem to be missing, like what exactly Sergeant Jing is up to; I get the feeling that either the original script was a bit shaky, or more likely the English translation is somewhat haphazard.

Still, the first hour or so made the film highly entertaining, even if the climax wasn't up to the same standard. R-Point isn't as good an entry in the "squaddies against the paranormal" genre as either Predator or Dog Soldiers (where's that sequel, Pertwee?), but it's definitely worth a look, and it's better than The Keep, or that one with the haunted submarine that no one watched.

Tapas'd

I surprised myself by actually liking tapas, although the quality of the restaurant has a great deal to do with that. Obviously, bits of tentacle and things in shells are never going to be favourites of mine, but on the whole I quite like the concept.

However.

You can't go twenty feet before finding some poncey bar that serves "tapas". It's apparently the in thing. But: (a) although I like some good Spanish-style cookerery, I might like a change now and then, so the opportunity to have something that's not tapas would be nice. (b) a third of a sausage and a dribble of tomato sauce in a tiny dish is not tapas. Especially at six quid for one of those tiny dishes.

Bastards!

Holy Oedipus, Batman!

Ex-genius writer Frank Miller, losing it in public.

Hover Bovver

In the post today, we received an advert from some nice young gentlemen offering a lawn-mowing service.

We live on the second floor.

Are you a goal-scoring superstar hero?

So, does anyone know if the new Sensi Soccer is any good? The only magazine review I'd trust would be from Amiga Power, but (a) they obviously wouldn't be reviewing PS2/X-Brick games, and (2) they stopped publishing about ten years ago. So is Sensi 2006 anywhere near as good as the originals?