Amazing Spider-Man Movie - Suction Cups?

Ok, so I'm not on the edge of cutting edge entertainment news but I just saw the following shot from the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man movie and I'm a little confused and concerned about what I see.  Check it out:

Are those suction cups? Seriously?

Why the hell would SPIDER-MAN need suction cups?!  Spider-Man does NOT have suction cups!  Look, I'm all about creative liberties but SUCTION CUPS?!  I'm not exactly what is going on here.  I've scoured the internet to see if I can find a reason why this new adaptation of Spider-Man has suction cups but have come up short.  I'm super happy about the change from organic webs in the previous series to the web shooters to me they're a big part of the character but I cannot fathom any instance in which suction cups come into play.  I own 1000+ issues of Spider-Man titles, I SHOULD KNOW.

Historically, the only time suction cups even come close to anything Spider-Man was when the Spider-Man villain Blood Spider tried to mimic his powers and was rumored to use mini suction caps to stick to walls in a strategy to try to defeat Spider-Man.  Well guess what, HE LOST, you know why?  Probably because of THE SUCTION CUPS!!!  ARRHHGGG!!!  As you can see I'm not happy.  This is just not a worthy perception of Spider-Mans powers.  Look how fast Spider-Man takes out Blood Spider in Amazing Spider-Man #367:

Ok, I think I'm done.  I just hope that they do a great job with this movie and I'm looking forward to thoroughly enjoying it, so here hoping there aren't going to be too many weird deviations like this.

SUCTION CUPS!?! Ok now I'm done,
~Steve

Avengers Movie Posters - Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Loki

I'm so excited I can hardly contain my joy!

Avengers Movie Poster from left to right, top to bottom: 

Thor, Hulk, Iron Man, Captain America, Nick Fury, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Loki

Hoping Spider-Man makes it into the next Avengers movie,

~Steve

Game Of Thrones - The Dothraki Language

Steven V

This is pretty interesting and following a fantasy/sci-fi tradition many would associate with JRR Tolkien and the languages he created for his Lord of the Ring series. The stories and culture mixed in to the writing of the Game of Thrones books is amazing and I love that they're adding to the depth of the people therein. Also, with the exception of code created for military purposes, I had no idea that newly created languages have been tried to be legitimately added to society in such recent history; I'm definitely going to have to read more about them.

In ‘Game of Thrones,’ a Language to Make the World Feel Real

www.nytimes.com

Hollywood is driving demand for constructed languages, complete with grammatical rules, a written alphabet (hieroglyphics are acceptable) and enough vocabulary for basic conversations.

 ·  · Share · about a minute ago

2010 Already Depressing?

Ok, sometimes the crap that pops up on the MSN.com homepage (that I’ve been forced to read due to it being the default homepage on my PC, and my general laziness) is entertaining enough to click and maybe read before I move on to Google.  But not today!  Today I pop on the web and I have to see this CRAP:

Knee jerk reaction: ‘You’ve got to be $%&#ing kidding me!’.  But of course I follow along behind the rest of the cattle and click this junk to find this intro:

Poets, publicists and psychiatrists all have their candidates for the bleakest time of the year. According to one equation devised by Dr. Cliff Arnall, a British researcher from Cardiff University, Jan. 18 is 2010’s most depressing day. His formula for this bleak prediction takes into account factors like post-holiday blahs and debt, failed New Year’s resolutions and, this year, the nasty chill that has reached much further south than usual. This particular peak in seasonal affective disorder (SAD) isn't the only time that we're prone to feeling low.

Research also indicates that new antidepressant prescriptions peak around Thanksgiving and suicide rates are highest during the spring. If April is a difficult month for your mood, this correlates to T.S. Eliot’s choice, characterized as "the cruellest month." 

So what can you do if you are feeling the winter blues—and how do you know when you should seek help? – MSN.com

I wasn’t depressed before, BUT I AM NOW! 

Let me rephrase these ‘technical terms’ used by Head Shrink Arnall:

Post-Holiday blahs = Longest most terrible hangover of the year (all two weeks of it)
Post-Holiday Debt = The realization that you blew two months rent on presents for people you don’t like, and motorized hamsters for their snot nosed kids
Failed New Year’s Resolutions = As if the statistics of 65% of American’s being over weight and 16 million being severely poor wasn’t enough; you’ve already failed at a goal you set for your self two weeks ago…keep up the hard work and dedication!
Seasonal Affective Disorder = A made up way of saying the ‘rain rain go away’ song had an adverse effect on you as a child (huge exasperated sigh here)

And if you, like me, are depressed 2 1/2 weeks into the new year just remember: you could be living in Haiti…or Canada.

Cheers,
~Steve V

Turning Movies into Comic Books

Every single time a new super hero movie comes out, a new series of comic books HAVE to come out too.  Which comic books am I speaking of?  The ones that take our beloved heroes stories and change them up a bit to fit the new story line for the MOVIE.  Case in Point:  New movie Iron Man 2 so new comic book…

Iron Man Vs. Whiplash #1

Now, I don’t know exactly how different this new movie storyline is going to be from the comic books but these comics are just completely worthless.  I understand that Marvel needs to make money and that publishing books based on the movie sparks interest in and reaches a whole new target audience, but I feel like these new books are cheating on the old storylines!

Think about it!  Why did they choose to make a movie with these characters?  BECAUSE OF THE COMIC BOOKS!  The stories and characters in the comic books were so good somebody thought it would be a good idea to make movies out of them right?!?  So, why reverse the process?!?  We’re not making a movie from completely new concepts, stories and characters and some genius thought it would be a good idea to put them in a comic book NO!!!  It’s the other way around people!

I understand that the story has to change a bit to fit the silver screen and I don’t care about that; If I walk into a movie and in no way expect them to follow the comics I walk away entertained every time!  The point is that in the comic world it is meaningless to release a book like this;  Marvel should do itself a favor and instead put out a fresh series outlining the real history of these two characters so that comic people and movie people will pick it up and possibly enjoy it, instead of releasing the ‘refab’ story and having it suck like most of these comic types do.

Going to get my inhaler and calm down a bit now,
~Steve

Around the Net – Slate.com TV Club - Mad Men Season 3

This weeks Mad Men was really good but there were a few parts of the episode that left me with more questions that answers, so, I went looking for answers and found an awesome TV club on Slate.com that discusses each weeks episode! 

It’s three different people that write articles, sometimes back and forth to each other, about their views on the episodes; the goods the bads and some of the more intricate plot line details.  Check it out @ Mad Men TV Club on Slate.com

Anyways, I got to reading one of the articles for this week and just had to leave a comment so I thought I’d share it here too.  Here is the part I was responding to:

But one question we haven't covered is this: Why, in a show that's chockablock with characters we'd like to spend more time with—Joan, Ken, Roger, even Moneypenny—do we keep getting introduced to new ones? Don has now had two mysterious male-bonding sessions over makeshift cocktails—the first with Conrad Hilton, the second with Warden Den—and although both have deepened our understanding of Don's mental state, neither has added much in the way of plot. READ MORE

And here are my thoughts on the subject:

I think that Don's "mysterious male-bonding sessions" are a perfect compliment to his character. Throughout the series Don has all of two lasting relationships with people outside of Sterling Cooper; his wife and the gal from his previous life (can't remember her name, she has the bad leg). So, I think that it is very fitting that they have introduced new short term characters, like Dennis Hobart, to have these revealing moments with Don.

He has always been so guarded about his life, past and present, and yet he has these moments with complete strangers where he is opening up and revealing parts of his past and childhood (at the bar during the wedding) as well as his thoughts and feelings about being a man and dad. I think he does this because to him these people are nobody, people that he has just met that happen to be there when he chooses to reach out to someone (which is becoming more frequent); and that he probably will never see again. So, because there is no danger or commitment in the act of opening up to strangers he does it freely and probably feels better in doing so (for instance the moment of happiness after the bar scene when he drops their things and kisses Betty after the wedding) but then faces no repercussions in his life by letting someone in, no matter how short term.

Thinking about taking up smoking because Don looks so suave doing it,
~Steve

Kanye West mixes things up at the MTV VMA’s

 

Can you say Duche Bag?

Look…I loved Kanye’s first album just as much as the next guy but seriously?  Jumping on stage and publicly dissing Taylor Swift to say he thinks Beyonce should have won?  Have some respect man, I know you think the world revolves around you but I’ve got news for you…it revolves around me, so get with the program!

 

<a href="http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2009/" target="_blank">Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage</a>

Kanye West Storms The VMA Stage