I'm still alive

It's been some time but I'm back, and I'm ready to blog... I blame work.

Anyhow, there's a lot of stuff to cover, and I'll try to play catchup with the next few posts. The 4th edition of D&D is out. The first preview pack of the next Magic: the Gathering expansion, Eventide is out. Pro Tour Hollywood jusr wrapped up and there's a hell of a lot of new deck techs from that event. Block season is brewing. GTA4 machinama is floating all over the web. Battlestar Galactica is getting weird. Naruto and Bleach are both doing some big reveals in the manga part of their franchises. Oh, and Tower of Druaga is a nice romp.

But, before I try to post on all of that, I'll go with the most immediate geek-gasm that's causing waves of gamma radiation to float around the geek-o-sphere: The Incredible Hulk.

Forget about the Tony Stark cameo in the film, feel bad that the Captain America cameo didn't make it past the cutting room. Yep. Cap was supposed to be there.

Too bad the Newsarama article that broke the news, didn't specify if the Steve Rogers - Bruce banner encounter involved a frozen, thawed, or newly defrosted Cap. I'm betting that if the scene makes it to the DVD, we're going to see a frozen Mr. Rogers. After all, Marvel Studios has already made public their intentions of making the Captain America film be set in WWII, so a still frozen Cap in a film that's supposed to feature the Hulk as it's main star makes sense.

So what Captain America reference in Hulk made it past the editors?
-The Super Soldier serum
-Erm, SHIELD?
-Dr. Reinstein.
-Dr. Samson
-Samuel Stern

I'm pretty sure there's more, but that's what I've caught so far.

I like that Marvel has their own studios now, and that they're now able to control the content of their films more. I also like their attempt at establishing a movie universe, where people make cameos, things are set, and everything links with one another.

On a related note, I also like how they're giving the actors involved some power over the story of the movie. I hear that Ed Norton was co-responsible for the screenplay of Hulk.

Well, Hulk's getting mixed reviews now, and being a fanboy I don't really mind. It's supposed to be an action movie, filled with gratuitous pop-corn moments of HULK SMASH.

If Hulk wasn't as fine-tuned or compelling as say Iron Man, then factoring in the freedom that Marvel's given the actors, it only proved that Robert Downey Jr. has a better sense of story than Ed Norton. At least Norton and Marvel Studios managed to bring the franchise as far away from Ang Lee as possible. I'm happy with that.

Here's to hoping Marvel hires someone decent to be Thor, and that it's every bit the epic-fantasy that they're making it to be. Personally, I'd rather they follow the "Ultimate" version of Thor... you know, the one where we're really not sure if he's a kooky nut, or if he really is a norse god. You can manage to mix epic fantasy with regular trips to the mental institution right?

Now that Marvel Studios is so dead set on building their 24 frame, silverscreen universe, they better manage to buy back their other characters from other studios, so that they could get them done right.

I don't know about you, but Spidey has to swing past the Baxter Building, Logan has to punch Nick in the face for being an ass, Attorney Matt Murdoch better get hired as a PR charity case by Mr. Stark, and by god people have to know that Galactus is NOT A CLOUD!

PS. I heard somewhere that Mr Norton didn't attend the premiere due to a hissy fit he decided to throw. Somehow. the "cut" he wanted of Hulk wasn't the one that was shown. Sorry, Ed, the problems that some reviewers had with the movie was with the lines, not the pacing. So I'm thinking it's more of the screen writer's fault (erm, you), not the editor's.