Indy, NO!
I cannot believe it’s already summer movie season. Iron Man, Wall-E, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, and much much more…just weeks away. The kid’s actually a full-blown toddler now so I’m hoping we can get a good babysitter and maybe see a few of these at our local moviehouses.
And then there’s Indy 4, which my wife has verbally committed to seeing with me; I mention that here so as to place the commitment in writing, on the web, thereby assuring she dare not back out for fear of a rampant backlash on all the various “Matt’s marriage” blogs.
Anyway, Anne Thompson at Variety is just one of a couple folks reporting some middling reactions to the flick; in a post last week (Jesus, where was I that I missed this?) she even suggests that *gasp* the Lucasfilm PR and marketing strategy may be (shocker!) FLAWED?!?!
The advance buzz on Indy is getting damaging enough that Lucas and Spielberg may want to reconsider the current strategy of waiting until May 18 to show the film to everyone at once. That’s a long way off.
It’s pretty astonishing just how backward Lucas and Spielberg still are when it comes to marketing a film in the internet age. Back in 1999, which was still practically the infancy of the web community compared to today, you could defiantly push a movie’s first screening to just a few days before its release and get away with it. Fans would be content simply to bask in the glorious mystery of the unseen blockbuster, and their heads would fill in the gaping blanks with the kind of premeditated grandeur that assures a positive reaction, even if the movie sucks.
After Phantom Menace, however, such breaks were cut on an increasingly rare basis. In the modern moviemaking cycle, it’s a far wiser strategy to show your cards and let the chips fall…unless, of course, your movie does indeed suck, in which case it makes sense to screen it for critics and advance audiences at the last minute…or not at all.
Whether Indy 4 is “the best of the Indy sequels” or a chunky steaming cinematic turd, Lucas and Spielberg are still ten years behind the times when it comes to how to effectively market movies. Then again, their “fans” number well, WELL beyond the internet movie nerd cabal, so they’re probably not at all worried.
Indy 4 could easily suck–it will still gross bazillions. Lucas will buy yet another fifty vintage cars, the stage will be set for Star Wars Episode VII, and life will go on.
Four-Color Critiques #0: My Brain Unhinges
Part of me wants to be more disciplined about writing comics reviews–or just reviews period, for that matter.
I had a whole imaginary post composed in my brain; I was gonna launch a review column or something that would take place weekly and would just compile all the scattered thoughts I have about comics I read, old shit and new. I would do this both to discipline myself into thinking more critically again about the entertainment I consume, and out of a deep insecure need to feel the approval and attention of the scattered collection of burnouts, wannabes, and poets known as the “comics blogosphere.”
Read that last phrase again–that’s what’s giving me pause. Among other things.
Superman versus Goro? Really?
Once again, it kind of feels like DC is running around, trying to copy Marvel’s hits – in this case, Marvel’s extended and highly successful cross-overs into Capcom’s Street Fighter series. However, with the DC and MK characters being so, oh I don’t know, opposite to one another in terms of violence levels, how’s this going to work? Well, word is they’ll be dropping the MK fatalities. So, yeah, the fun part of MK is gone. This plan is awesome.
Mind you, if the designer pops up in the corner and yells “Toast-eeee!” when Superman uses his heat-vision, I’m sold.
Check out the trailer here – kick his ass, Bats!
Grok #1: An Alert Nerd Zine
Gentle nerdly readers, we know there are many things that make you sad. Darth Weinstein’s claw-like grip on Fanboys. Lawsuits from Big Meanie George Lucas. The fact that you can’t take Alert Nerd with you and read it while you’re riding the bus or sitting on the can or experiencing a company-mandated corporate training retreat.
But wait! We’ve found the solution to at least one of these perplexing dilemmas! And so we present to you our latest brainchild: a zine. But instead of time-warping back to our college days and busting out the staplers and Xerox machines, we’re presenting it to you as a shiny PDF. You can read it on your computer screen or print it out and tote it wherever you so desire.
Within, you will find essays, fiction and general silliness exploring geek culture and the nerd experience. The pieces are a bit longer than what you will generally find on the site (in some cases, spanning an unnecessary, er, epic amount of pages) and they all center on a theme chosen by the editors. For our inaugural issue, we’ve chosen…pon farr. Delicious.
Grok #1: Spring ‘08, Pon Farr (PDF)
Highlights include…
Scintillating fiction from Matt Springer and Sarah Kuhn!
Thrilling explorations of the mixed geek marriage by Jeff Stolarcyk!
Slashy musings, mused by Chris Stewart!
Amazingcrazy words on the online love life of a semi-geek, downloaded by semi-geek Ken Simon!
Brilliant breakdowns of why pon farr is the best geek pick-up strategy evAR, as tested by Sarah McKinley Oakes!
Mind-blowing insights on con hook-ups!
Possibly tasteless nerd pick-up lines!
And much, much more! So read on, print out and/or share with your friends! And we’ll be doing this quarterly, so come back this summer for more!
LOADS-A-MONEY!
I’m kind of wondering if io9’s throw-up-everything-see-what-sticks approach to my various, beloved pastimes and nerd predilections isn’t the start of a nerdier-than-thou reference war. With me, mostly. A lot of the stuff they celebrate on the site always comes off with an air of “Look what we found in the trash! Isn’t it amazing what they used to like in prehistory?”, leaving me standing to the sides going “Hey, I owned that!”
For example, I give to you the post-JAMs, pre-KLF, Timelords, and their novelty hit, Doctorin’ the Tardis. You have no idea what this song meant to someone growing up in a Western Canadian town in the late-80s, early-90s. Parched for any electronic music out of the UK and desperate for anything related to Dr. Who, the Timelord’s CD EP was critical to me not packing it in and wearing a tie.
