Summer Superhero Movies

The New York Magazine posted an article about this summer's four superhero movies--Iron Man, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, and Hellboy 2--and speculated on which ones may not live up to the hype.

Here's my take.

Iron Man looks pretty good. Fun, lots of action, bits of humor. I don't know much about the superhero but if the trailers are anything to go by, this looks like perfect summer entertainment.

The Dark Knight will undoubtedly be good, but probably more dark and creepy than shiny fun. I liked Christian Bale's portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Begins (even with the ninja tendencies), and everyone knows Heath Ledger is phenomenal as the Joker.

It's really too soon to remake the Hulk, and The Incredible Hulk doesn't look that compelling. It might have a better story, and the Hulk isn't supposed to keep getting bigger as the movie progresses, but those are the only two good things I'm aware of. Besides that, I don't know that many people take the Hulk seriously. It's a lot more fun to watch the animated grumbling Hulk who can barely piece sentences together and enjoys smashing whatever he can.

Hellboy 2...I didn't know there was a first one. I haven't heard much about this movie, and I just found out today that Guillermo del Toro directed it (also directed Pan's Labyrinth and El Espinazo del Diablo). I think that's a problem--not a lot of people know about it. Good story, good acting or not, it doesn't matter if no one goes to see it.

Technorati Tags: Ironman, Batman, Hulk, Hellboy, movies, summer

Internet Distractions

For all the necessary, useful activities we use the internet for (researching essays, communicating with faraway friends...), we also have access to unlimited distractions. Some are consistent. You have to check Facebook every ten minutes to see if someone wrote on your wall. You want a twenty minute break from work, so you play a few levels of Bejeweled.

The fact that these distractions are so easy to access makes it difficult to keep a steady work pace. (Your favorite forum is only a few clicks away in a separate tab, after all.) Outside of self control, though, we have a few options. There are programs out there that you can use to self-block yourself from specific web sites. Lifehacker recently featured an article on LeechBlock, a small application that lets you set which sites you want to block, on which days, and at what times.

That works great if you put off work by visiting a handful of sites. You can keep yourself away from LiveJournal, GoogleNews, and Yahoo!Games--whatever you use to procrastinate. For me though, specific sites aren't an issue. I get bored of social-networking sites (like Facebook and LiveJournal) fairly easily, so even if I check them before I dig into an assignment, I won't spend much time on those sites. Same thing with online gaming sites--they can hold my attention only for so long.

And then I look for something else. I find a new blog or a random article. I even take a break from web-surfing to reorganize files on my computer (or my bookmarks, which I sorted through for forty minutes the other night).

Blocking yourself may be of some help, but really, it's up to the person to focus on work instead of procrastinating. I'm not much of a help to myself when it comes to buckling down and getting to work, though. I just downloaded StumbleUpon, and I love it! It's a toolbar application that not only brings up random web sites, but finds ones tailored to your interests. Then you give sites a thumbs up or thumbs down to tell StumbleUpon more about what you want to see. The more you stumble, the better the sites match your interests...Because I needed another way to avoid writing essays and such.

Technorati tags: internet, Lifehacker, distractions, StumbleUpon

Good News For Smallville

Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, the creators and executive producers of Smallville, have announced their resignation and so will not be involved in season 8. Mania.com posted their open letter in which they thank everyone involved in Smallville and talk about how proud they are of the show.

What makes this good news? Other shows' fans might be concerned when the show's creators step down, but in Smallville's case, this is exactly what the fans have been wishing for. Millar and Gough deserve credit for rethinking Clark Kent's teenage years and creating an intelligent, well-written series that explored Clark's discovery of who he is and his journey to become Superman. But that all went down the drain after season 3.

Season 3 is perhaps the most compelling year for Smallville, but it carried darker themes and story arcs, so Millar and Gough promised an upbeat season 4. That promise translated to shallow plots and even worse uses of Kryptonite (Kryptonite Gatorade and plastic surgery??). Clark and Lana continued their off and on relationship and three years later, that pairing is still central to the show (and now we have Kryptonite-laced gum). Season 5 hinted at a move to Clark and Lois, but then Lana faked her death and moved onto the Kent farm (do I smell soap opera?), and here were are back in season 1 with Clark trying to make a relationship with Lana work. The series has become repetitive and tiresome, hindering most of its characters' development.

But now Millar and Gough are gone, and hopefully that means their Lana-centered arcs are gone too. The best thing for Smallville now is someone to step in who knows the Superman mythos well and can morph Smallville's stagnant Clark Kent into America's most iconic superhero.

Technorati Tags: Smallville, television, Gough, Millar