LIKED
– The “sneak preview” of Glee. Although I think airing the premiere episode of a series Fox doesn’t plan to air for another three months is, how shall I say this, idiotic and a programming strategy that only Fox could come up with, this was one of the best pilots I’ve seen in a while; funny and clever, with great musical numbers, and it built to a ringing, enthusiastic finale that nonetheless obviously showed room for development and growth. All the better for it being unique among the current crop of television shows.
– Tower of Greed. Simple in execution yet incredibly addictive. The first Flash game I’ve played in a while that felt really fresh, despite the “keep going up or you die” concept being far from original; ToG’s system of giving you occasional options to opt out to finalize your score really puts a stamp on the style that’s a good gameplay twist, and the 80s-ish pixel graphics are exactly what I like to see in a platformer like this one.
– Marcos Martin’s “Saga of Captain America” backup feature in Captain America #50. Hey, what if all those Marvel Saga-type summaries Marvel is putting in their books these days to justify the extra dollar in price were actually something you wanted to see because they had gorgeous new art with a strong sense of design? Wouldn’t that be cool? Well, that’s what they did here. Marcos Martin has permission to draw anything he wants to for ever.
– Gaby Rojas’ audition on the first episode of So You Think You Can Dance. One of the rare times when Nigel’s praise was not in fact even a bit hyperbolic. Absolutely astounding, and one of the best solos on this program ever, be they auditions or competition or whatever. (Other solos that were excellent: Peter Sabasino the tapper, Kayla Rodomski who made her grandpa cry when she got through, and of course Natalie Reid and Brandon Bryant, who both would have made top 20 last year if it weren’t for the producers trying to spread out talent and also give a street dancer the best chance of winning.)
DIDN’T LIKE
– Terminator: Salvation. Loud and stupid and disappointing in all the wrong ways. A couple of really great action sequences, sure, but then again Star Wars: The Phantom Menace had a couple of really great action sequences and nobody says that was good (and the acting and dialogue in Terminator is as near-witless as the acting and dialogue in Menace). With the exception of Star Trek, the summer movie season this year is just floundering in terms of quality.
– Nigel Lythgoe’s burst of homophobia when presented with a same-sex ballroom couple (who were actually quite good technically despite a screwup). Nigel, your jokes weren’t funny (much like, you know, all your jokes ever), but worse you went from unfunny to outright offensive this time. Save the moralizing for… well, never.
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Actually, *I* say the Phantom Menace was good. In fact, I say it was the best of the Star Wars movies ever. Yes, really.
Also the acting in TPM was the best of any of the franchise with the possible exception of Frank Oz in Empire/Jedi. Yes, really.
Also I dug Chamize’s (sp?) choreography if his technique showed around the edges a bit.
–M
Chimizie’s choreo was clever, but “showed around the edges a bit” is being nice; his technique was very, very rough. He looks like he needs two or three years’ worth of seasoning to reach the level of, say, Twitch.
One of the things I liked the most about Gabi Rojas was that her style was so unique. I think there were a lot of great auditions, but most of the contemporary dancers end up doing a lot of the same moves and looking very similar. She was so DIFFERENT. She incorporated interesting style. And it told me that she’d be GREAT at doing interesting, quirky choreography. I can’t wait to see it.
I tried to give Nigel the benefit of the doubt. I think he was TRYING to say that in traditional dance male/male pairings just don’t work unless it’s stuff like they do during the finale episodes, very masculine storyline pairings. And SYTYCD has never pretended to be a barrier breaking, out of the box show. They really do traditional styles and techniques, just sometimes with interesting choreography. And i think he was TRYING to say that these guys don’t fit into that mold, and that they aren’t right for the show for that reason. And I think when he said, “I want to see you both dance with girls,” he was simply saying, “I want to see if you’re right for this show.” But h tried to get clever. And he is one of those people that, when he tries to get clever, he only proves that he is not. And the “Blades of Glory” comment, and his later online comment about “Brokeback Ballroom” took his comments about dance style and turned them into offensive commentary about sexuality and gender. I’m not sure that was what he even MEANT. But he should apologize for it.
“With the exception of Star Trek, the summer movie season this year is just floundering in terms of quality.”
I could have told you that three months ago.
Everything looks stupid. Transformers 2 looks incredibly stupid (the robots will used for fights and comic relief instead of actual characters). GIJOE looks worse.
Night of the Museum didn’t deserve a sequel. Up looks like a hodgepodge of leftover ideas. Land of the Lost has Will Ferrel in it (nuff said). Hangover is a “Dude, Where’s my car” rip-off. There’s another Ice Age movie coming that’s about to learn that Everyone Loves Raymond is no longer popular. G-Force is NOT about the anime series but rather talking gophers.
All this summer needs is another mindless Fantastic Four movie to just seal the deal and remind everyone how excellent Hollywood is at over-simplifying a good concept to a formula and how shitty they are at working any kind of reasonable storyline around that formula.
Man, nerds surprised a McG directed movie is bad just crack me up…
Watching my PVR-ed SYTYCD right now. Gaby Rojas was stellar, I hope she makes it on to the Top 20!
Gotta disagree with you on Glee. I understand that the characters will grow as the series goes on, but this episode gave us nothing but ciphers. And besides “Don’t Stop Believing” being played the hell out, the final sequence made The Heights look like Les Mis in terms of believability.
However, I’m completely with you on Salvation. It was depressing watching the franchise come apart before my very eyes.
Oh!!! The grandpa crying! That made my day.
What the hell, Nigel? Totally insulting! I just feel really sad now.
I thought TPM was good, but T:S isn’t looking at all appealing. I’ve heard nothing encouraging from anyone.
There’s still UP! to look forward to, and probably HARRY POTTER will be good, but there’s not a lot left.
“Actually, *I* say the Phantom Menace was good. In fact, I say it was the best of the Star Wars movies ever. Yes, really.
Also the acting in TPM was the best of any of the franchise with the possible exception of Frank Oz in Empire/Jedi. Yes, really.”
And thus any weight or credibility your posts might have had here have gone out the window. Yes, really. :-p
The reason everything sucks this summer isn’t just the usual Hollywood quality control. It’s the strike. A lot of what we’re seeing was rushed into production so that it could be ready if the strike dragged on too long. It’s pretty clear Star Trek, too, was a first draft script–the fact that it works as well as it does is a minor miracle (and a testament to Abrams’ skill as a director).
At least we’ve got Up next week to kick our asses. Also, if you get a chance, see The Brothers Bloom–great flick.
I’m willing to back up Marty on this one (and lose my nonexistent credibility in Randy B’s eyes). The Phantom Menace was a very good film, and could’ve made ‘great’ if they’d cast a slightly older kid and made twenty seconds’ worth of alterations to the script.
I’ll step even further into heresy and say categorically that C-3PO in ‘A New Hope’ was far more irritating than Jar-Jar Binks at his worst.
I’ve enjoyed Tower of Greed on Kongregate. But then I’m a sucker for platformers with good controls (as opposed to “innovative controls” that don’t let you actually control your character.)
Phantom Menace is really derivative of RotJ. Especially the last third, which is a proto-version of the Battle of Endor (a three way battle with shifting scenes between a Jedi match, a ground battle, and a starship battle.) Of the three set ups, only the Jedi battle in Phantom Menace really matches up (Lando/Ackbar and co in space is better than young Anikan Gary Stuing his way to victory, and I’ll take Ewoks versus Storm Troopers over Jar-Jar and friends over versus droid things.)
Even the Jedi battle depends on your preference: the Vader/Luke/Emporer battle has more emotion than Maul versus two Jedi; the latter is the better action sequence.
One last comment: I’ve thought that Maul fought fairly stupidly for somebody trained with two light sabers. But that’s partially because I’ve felt that people ought to take more advantage of the fact that light sabers extend and retract effectively instantaneously, and incorporating that technique into a two handed light saber combat suite would render Maul nearly unstoppable as a combatant.
I do think TPM is very similar to JEDI, but I think it does the same thing just a little better- I wouldn’t say it’s one of the best entries in the series, but I think it’s more defensible than the Internet would have one believe.
I’ll leave it there for now for the sake of not derailing the comment thread further.
Terminator hasn’t really been GOOD since the very first movie. Part 2 was OK, but mainly gets a pass because of the special effects. If you take one second to think about the plot and characters, everything really starts to fall apart. The less said about part 3 the better.
I’m probably going to see Salvation tonight, but man, I’m not expecting too much. I mean, the series isn’t exactly a fortress of quality.
For summer movies, I’m expecting Up and Harry Potter 6 to be good; otherwise, not much goin’ on.
MGK,
Amid the flush of explody goodness/badness, are you going to have any words about S. Darko?
T2 was better than T1 in every way. Including having possibly one of the best endings of any movie ever.
I thought T:S was okay. Not great, but not anything that would make me scream in agony either.
Frankly, the bit with the boombox and the Termicycle made the $5 matinee ticket worth it to me. Though I guess I could always blame the ticket booth attendant who helped me decide between Terminator Salvation and X-Men Wolverine:
TBA: Can I help you?
Me: Just trying to decide which movie to see, Terminator or X-Men.
TBA: Do you like the X-Men
Me: Oh yeah.
TBA: Movie X-Men or Comic X-Men?
Me: Oh, the comics.
TBA: Go see Terminator.
🙂