WLG #246: Other Geekly Pursuits!

By Michael A. Diaz

Remember how last week I was so excited to go see Underworld: Rise of the Lycans?

Well, Sunday morning I went to the cheap show here in town ($4!); I was supposed to go with a friend of mine but he bailed at the last minute. I used to hate to go to movies all by myself, but for $4.00 I'm not going to worry about my pride too much.

So what did I think?

It was OK.

Part of the problem is that I over-hype movies for myself. I get so excited about them coming out that I expect the most thrilling cinematic experience ever. The list of movies that I go super-excited for and was initially let down is a long one; I've found over the years that I have to actually see a movie a second time, after I've let the hype wash over me and let reality set in. Case in point: The Matrix. I was so excited about what I thought the movie was going to be about I wasn't able to fully appreciate how good the movie really was until I saw it a second time. I can say the same thing about The Dark Knight; mind you, I really liked it the first time that I saw it, but upon my second viewing I fully appreciated what an amazing job all involved pulled off.

Not that Underworld... was anything like all of those movies.

I said all of the above to really kind of explain things to myself; I do tend to over-hype movies, but this time, I really wasn't expecting that much. I know that opinions vary, but I really liked the first Underworld and thought that the second one was complete crap. This one had to be better, right?

Honestly, if I were you, I would wait until it came out on video. It was certainly better than the turd the second film was, but it was not as good as the first film. It ends nicely, tying itself to the first film well, but I thought that Rhona Mitra was drastically under-utilized. She's no Ian McClellan, that's for sure, but she can be good in a popcorn flick, as seen in Doomsday, but in this film it seemed like the part could have been played by anyone. I say this not because she was bad, but that for a star-billing her role seemed rather slight. She's not in it nearly as much as I would have thought she would have been.

Really, this entire movie is all about Viktor and Lucian. Seeing that this movie was made for "cheap" (by Hollywood standards) it will probably make its money back and then some, so maybe we'll see a fourth movie. If this is the final film, well, it ended kind of weakly IMHO.

Also, I know that this isn't anything new, it's been out for a couple of years, but it is something new to me, so I've been looking forward to it: The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi. It came out in 2007, and no, it's not a comic book, but it does appeal to my geek interests. I got the first book in the series, Old Man's War, for Christmas and I tore right through it I loved it so much. Here's the blurb from Amazon.com:

Though a lot of SF writers are more or less efficiently continuing the tradition of Robert A. Heinlein, Scalzi's astonishingly proficient first novel reads like an original work by the late grand master. Seventy-five-year-old John Perry joins the Colonial Defense Force because he has nothing to keep him on Earth. Suddenly installed in a better-than-new young body, he begins developing loyalty toward his comrades in arms as they battle aliens for habitable planets in a crowded galaxy. As bloody combat experiences pile up, Perry begins wondering whether the slaughter is justified; in short, is being a warrior really a good thing, let alone being human? The definition of "human" keeps expanding as Perry is pushed through a series of mind-stretching revelations. The story obviously resembles such novels as Starship Trooper and Time Enough for Love, but Scalzi is not just recycling classic Heinlein. He's working out new twists, variations that startle even as they satisfy. The novel's tone is right on target, too—sentimentality balanced by hardheaded calculation, know-it-all smugness moderated by innocent wonder. This virtuoso debut pays tribute to SF's past while showing that well-worn tropes still can have real zip when they're approached with ingenuity.

I realized when I read Old Man's War that I had not read a novel in some time. Sure, I read comics all of the time, and I've read books the last couple of years, but as far as I can remember they were all non-fiction books.

So I'll tear into my new book soon enough, but for now, let's see what What Looks Good...


DC

BATMAN #685 (Paul Dini / Dustin Nguyen)

I fully admit that I have not been following Batman as closely as I should have the last several months, so the real reason that I am picking up this book is one of my personal favorite artists, Dustin Nguyen. I've seen Dustin's sketches and drawings of Catwoman over the years and he certainly gives the character a sleek, and feline quality, so of course I'll be checking this out.











DC (Wildcats) / MARVEL (Punisher War Zone)

WILDCATS #7 $2.99 (Christos Gage / Neil Googe)

PUNISHER WAR ZONE #6 (OF 6) $3.99 (Garth Ennis / Steve Dillon)

I realize that these books have nothing to do with each other save this: they're both titles that I absolutely love and I've been going on about them for months, so really, I've pretty much exhausted just about anything else that I think that I can say about them.

Let's face it, Ennis and Dillon doing just about anything with the Punisher is comic book gold. I feel the same way about anything Gage does in the WildStorm Universe, but I've been saying that for a long, long time now.

I could try to pretty it up, but with these two titles it comes down to this: just looking at the covers and the creative teams involved is enough to make my wild-eyed and geeked out.

'Nuff said.

---

What comics did you get geeked out about this week? Just stop by the WLG message boards (see link below) and share!

See you next week!

-Diaz

---

Were Diaz's picks on the mark?
Have your say on What Looks Good at the Looking Good message board.

---