Hancock had a good premise

I wasn't very interested in seeing Hancock, but it wasn't a waste of time. It started off as an interesting, original superhero film. John Hancock (played by Will Smith) has superpowers but a bad reputation with the public. Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman) is a public relations executive who offers to reinvent Hancock's image after Hancock saves his life. Charlize Theron plays Mary, Ray's wife. Major plot spoilers below the image.

I like the idea of a superhero who helps out but doesn't really care about others. Hancock saves people and stops disasters, but he doesn't make it nice and tidy. He wrecks buildings and he causes traffic jams. It's a nice change from Superman creating fine-tuned order out of chaos. (Watch the scene in Superman Returns where Superman zips around Metropolis during the earthquake, blasting broken glass with his heat vision and catching falling parts of buildings before they hit the pedestrians on the street below. It's cool and only Superman could pull that off, but it's too neat.) Granted, we don't know why Hancock even bothers, but it's nice to see a super-powered person who gets his hands dirty.

The movie could have stayed on that thread--a superhero who needs to reinvent his image, who needs to have a better reputation with the public and answer to the damages he causes. It's similar to that guy suing Mr. Incredible for saving him when he didn't want to be saved. It can be comical and it's different. It makes you think about how superheroes would function in the real world. Will Smith could have easily pulled that off, but even he couldn't make the rest of Hancock entertaining.

It should have ended with the new and improved Hancock, polite and available to lend a helping hand in his spiffy suit. The movie drags on though. The lame mythos, the soap-opera side-plot between Hancock and Mary (lost lovers with a dash of amnesia mixed in) and the forced sacrifices the characters have to make feel like excuses to have a few fight scenes and blood.

Hancock deserves some credit for a different take on superhero movies, but the last third of the movie should have been cut.

Technorati Tags: Hancock

Dr. Horrible on Imacynic

I have an article up on imacynic about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. It's a blend of my Dr. Horrible posts here with some new/updated stuff. Click here to read it.

My friend Jamie runs imacynic.org, "literature for the eclectic and affluent geek." I'm a contributing writer, and so far my articles have been about television and movies with the exception of one about Post Secret and Flickr. Be sure to check out his site (especially the Dark Knight content)!

Technorati tags: imacynic, drhorrible, Whedon

Sci Fi Wire's Top 10 Canceled Shows

Sci Fi Wire posted a list of 10 sci-fi television shows that were canceled after their first season, before the general audience had a chance to see their awesomeness.

I was surprised to see Eerie, Indiana at #10. I used to watch that Saturday mornings, and it was a nice pairing with Goosebumps. I was not surprised to see Firefly at #1. It's one of the few shows that got its huge following after it was canceled.

I noticed half the shows on the list were on FOX. Just saying.

Technorati Tags: television, canceled, scifi

Supernatural Fandom: United We're Boring

Image from SPNmedia

It's summer time, most TV shows are on hiatus, and that means there's not much to talk about on fansites. It happens every year: forum participation goes down and new threads stop popping up. Take away new episodes, plug the constant flow of spoilers, and hardcore Supernatural fans will do one of two things: argue about Sam's place in the series or complain about Dean's role on the show.

Supernatural is one of the few shows that has a main cast of two people. Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki star as Dean and Sam Winchester (respectively). Fans tend to favor one brother over the other, so all summer long, it's the fall-back conversation. Who's the better hunter? Which brother is a better brother? Which brother has more fans (and which fan group is the best)? Back and forth, the same stuff over and over again. It's not centralized to one place-- the CW's forums, Supernatural.tv, even IMDB's messageboard--have had their share of redundant discussions that often turn to heated arguments.

Supernatural's fandom has that kind of loyalty and dedication because there are only two main characters. Attaching to one is easy, and pitting Dean and Sam against each other is even easier to do.

Imagine if the same thing happened in another fandom. Take Heroes for example. Who's your favorite? The choices are Hiro, Ando, Claire, Mr. Bennet, Peter, Nathan, Matt, Isaac, Sylar, Jessica/Niki, Micah, DL, Mohinder...and still more. The number of characters splinters the fandom, and in this case, that's a good thing. Even if one character has a huge following, chances are it won't be overpowering. Fans of the other characters keep each group in check, and it's less likely one following will be dominant.

It's a different story with Supernatural, though. Two characters, two followings, and they're head to head with few new topics to discuss.

We still have six weeks until season 4 starts.

Technorati tags: Supernatural, television, fandom

And so it starts

Welcome to Digital Fare, now that I'm set up, more or less.

Officially, this blog starts this week, but you'll notice there are blog entries on here dated from April through July 2008. I kept their original post dates of those entries from my first blog and I thought their content fit here.

My plan is to post about topics related to the media (movies, tv), internet, and entertainment. Digital Fare as in "something offered to the public, for entertainment, enjoyment, consumption, etc."

Thank you for reading, and I hope you visit often!

About

Welcome to Digital Fare, a blog about movies, television, and internet media. I'm Kali and I've been blogging since September 2004, but Digital Fare started in August 2008. (I posted about random topics on my first blog, and some of the last posts there grew into this blog.) I'm currently studying media and communication in college, and I use this blog as an informal way to write about my interest in media.

Where else can you find me?

You can follow me on Twitter or check out what I'm listening to on Uvumi. I post things I find amusing and/or like on Tumblr. I have a short fiction blog called Flicker in the Night. I was the forum administrator on Supernatural.tv from October 2005 to February 2009 and I still stick around there because old habits die hard.

If you'd like to contact me, you can do so through my tumblr.  There, you can send me questions, suggestions, or get in touch.  If you'd like me to respond to you personally, please include your contact information in your message.

Like what you see?

Please subscribe to Digital Fare by clicking the orange button on top of the sidebar if you like the content on this blog. The RSS feed is freely provided by Feedburner. (If you're unfamiliar with RSS, please check out whatisrss.com.)

About the site

Digital Fare uses a free template, LightWord, from Deluxe Templates. Digital Fare is hosted by Blogger and looks best in Firefox. All images on the blog are hosted by PhotoBucket. The Follow Me Twitter badge in the sidebar is from Design Mirkku.

Thank you for visiting!


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Al Gore Places Infant Son In Rocket To Escape Dying Planet

Al Gore...Gore-Al = Jor-El...Get it?

Every now and then, I love the Onion.

"He will be faster than a speeding Prius, stronger than the existing Superfund program, and able to leap mountains of red tape in a single bound. These superpowers will sustain him in his never-ending battle against conservatives, wealthy industrialists, and other environmental supervillains."

A job at Daily Planet for our young hero seems like the perfect fit.

Read the article | digg story

Technorati tags: Superman, Al, Gore